Food security is achieved if sufficient, safe and nutritious food is physically, socially and economically available and accessible for all individuals, at all times, in order to satisfy their daily energy requirements and to live an active and healthy life. 

Therefore, food security and nutrition has four dimensions: food availability, access and utilization, and stability of the three previous dimensions. 

Food security is a necessary condition for the realization of the human right to food, which is, at the same time, linked to the fundamental right to life. This approach draws attention to States responsibility on ensuring the adequate conditions for their citizens to see their human right to food realized. In addition, this approach acknowledges the political commitment needed to fight structural gaps that have an impact on food security and nutrition. 

Political commitment is a key element to ensure food security and nutrition. This political commitment must go beyond particular governments and become a State commitment, involving the academy, private sector and civil society; and must be reflected in the construction and strengthening of public policies that include food security and nutrition objectives. 

At least two types of policies are needed: (i) social protection policies, in order to ensure food for all the individuals that do not have access to it, and (ii) production policies, in order to ensure production of the amount of food needed to safeguard access at a national level. 

An adequate and healthy diet provides all of the essential nutrients needed according to age and physiological condition. Likewise, human right to food involves the possibility of choosing the food that we want to eat, according to cultural relevance, tradition and background. 

Changes in food systems, lifestyles and eating habits have led to increased consumption of processed and energy-dense food, which brings about increased energy consumption and increasing rates of overweight and obesity. As nutrient deficiency problems persist, undernutrition, overweight and obesity coexist, situation that is commonly referred to as the “double burden” of malnutrition.

Food and nutrition education helps building capacities for people to feed themselves and their families well, prepare healthy foods and meals they enjoy, recognize poor food choices and avoid them, and teach others about healthy eating. 

School-feeding programs, involving healthy meals and food and nutrition education, can contribute to improving children and teenagers diets and developing healthier food practices. In this sense, these programs can contribute to achieving objectives related to education, health, social development, among others. 

The “Sustainable Schools” strategy is a reference experience for the implementation of sustainable school feeding programs as a part of a cross-sectoral school feeding policy and involving all of the educational community. The Strategy includes five interrelated components: (i) inter-sectoral coordination and social participation; (ii) food and nutrition education through educational school gardens; (iii) improvements to the school infrastructure to store, prepare and serve food; (iv) adoption of healthy, adequate and culturally appropriate meals; and (v) direct purchases of food from local family farming. 

Educational school gardens facilitate organizing food education activities, guiding students towards improving their eating habits and fostering a culture of healthy and proper nutrition. School gardens facilitate student learning in a recreational and healthy manner, coordinated to include different areas of knowledge. The establishment of school gardens involves teachers, directors, students and parents. 

Family farming is a mode of production involving agriculture, livestock, fisheries and forestry activities, managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant on family labor. The definition and characterization of family farming depends on the specificities of this sector in each country. 

Family farmers are in charge of a major part of developed and developing countries production, providing healthy, diverse and culturally appropriate food. Family farmers are key actors towards achieving food security and nutrition. 

To strengthen family farming, access to social protection systems, financial services, markets, education and income-generating opportunities must be guaranteed. Mesoamerican countries are working on the development of differentiated public policies in favor of family farmers, their linkage to food supply systems, strengthening their productive and associative capacities, strengthening their resilience to climate change, among other actions. 

These processes involve a participatory construction of a definition and a typology of family farming, according to the specificities of those who are engaged in this activity in each country. During these processes, family farmers’ productive resources, labor force, production level, access to markets and others factors are taken into account. Conceptualizing, characterizing and registering family farming makes acknowledging their situation in each country, increasing their visibility and designing public policies in order to respond to their needs in a differentiated and effective way possible. All of this with the aim of promoting family farming development. 

Public food purchase programmes can be a great way to link family farming to local markets, institutional programmes and consumers. Public purchases generate new markets for family farming and stimulate the articulation of public policies, promoting healthy eating habits, triggering local development and improving family farmers’ life quality. 

A territorial approach to rural development involves institutional and productive transformation strategies, constructed along with community members, considering the multiple dimensions of territories and their agricultural and non-agricultural activities, with the aim of improving life conditions in rural areas. This approach involves participation of communities in planning activities and decision-making as its main element.

People's ability and desire to stay in rural areas depend on their access to basic services, decent job opportunities, resources and their participation in decision-making processes. Promoting social roots is a key factor in rural development and in finding solutions to non-optional migration. Generating decent and sustainable livelihoods in rural areas promotes social roots. 

Families with resilient livelihoods are better prepared to prevent, reduce and recover from the impact of threats and disasters that could affect agriculture, food security and nutrition. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without resilient livelihoods. 

Productive inclusion involves strengthening rural communities’ productivity and livelihoods through the promotion of association, value chains and producers access to natural resources, agricultural inputs and markets. 

Agricultural extension includes different education and assistance services and systems, which facilitate the access of producers and their organizations to knowledge, technologies and tools that contribute to their development and linkage to markets. 

Extension systems can be strengthened by implementing participative methodologies, adopting new technologies, designing tools to facilitate technical assistance processes, promoting innovative practices, among other actions. 

Farmer field schools are one of the most used methodologies within the framework of agricultural extension. Farmer field schools strengthen farmers’ capacities and promote empowerment and local leadership. Farmers put into practice different productive techniques in demonstrative crops, participate in producers’ fieldtrips and sharing of experiences, and discover different ways to face common problems. 

Rainwater harvesting systems allow intercepting, collecting and storing rainwater for later use. These systems are adaptable to urban and rural areas, using from the most rustic to the most sophisticated technology, and contribute to satisfying demand for water by promoting self-sufficiency.

Rainwater harvesting systems are useful for human consumption, along with a purification system, for agricultural use or for livestock. These systems can be used either personally or at home, as a group or community. Rainwater harvesting systems represent significant savings in time and money.

Adequate use of water is a priority in Mesoamerica, especially for those territories where rainfall does not meet the population’s needs on a continuous basis. The Dry Corridor in Central America is characterized by a high fluctuation of rainfall, with periods of intense droughts and others of extensive rainfall. With these rainwater harvesting systems communities can benefit from those extensive rainfall periods and store rainwater in order to use it during drought periods. In this sense, rainwater harvesting systems contribute to enabling access of vulnerable communities to water.  

The benefited community actively participates in planning and construction activities, as well as in the operation and maintenance of these rainwater harvesting systems. Additionally, financing mechanisms, coordination committees and rules of procedure are established to ensure the system’s sustainability and an equitable use of water resources. These mechanisms contribute to promoting good practices in the use of water among the community.

“Seed security” refers to availability and access to quality native seeds, which contribute to improving food security and nutrition of family farmers.

Community seed banks are spaces for organization and participation where farmers can produce, commercialize and exchange local seeds and varieties they usually use in their crops, thus reducing their external dependence and improving their access to good quality seeds.

In participatory plant breeding processes, researchers, agricultural technicians and producers actively participate in seed selection, exchange, conservation and multiplication processes, with locally improved varieties. These processes cross the barriers of research centers and take place at farms where producers directly participate in each stage, including decision-making. The varieties generated are adapted to local conditions and are available to farmers.

South-South Cooperation is the mutual sharing of key development solutions in certain areas between and among developing countries. Knowledge and experiences sharing, good practices, policies, technologies and resources are some of the most common forms of cost-effective cooperation among countries. 

South-South Cooperation normative and operational principles are solidarity, national ownership and leadership, respect for national sovereignty, mutual benefit, mutual accountability and transparency, coordination of evidence-and-results based initiatives, and a multi-stakeholder approach.  

It involves two or more countries in collaboration with a third party, typically a multilateral institution, traditional resource partner, or emerging economy, facilitating South-South Cooperation through the provision of technical or financial resources.