Hunger Watch

Hunger Watch is the ACF International Network’s epicenter for advocacy and research. Based in our London headquarters, Hunger Watch supports ACF’s broader mission of raising awareness and engaging public opinion; packaging and delivering ACF field expertise, analysis, and recommendations to key decision-makers, institutions, and political actors; targeting hunger’s complex of underlying causes; advocating for humanitarian values and outcomes; liaising with academia to exchange scientific research and field-level investigations; and ensuring that vulnerable communities have a voice among international humanitarian deliberations.

Hunger Watch collects, compiles, and packages data and findings from ACF’s extensive field programs in over 40 countries. These on-the-ground perspectives—gleaned directly from thorough field surveys, regional studies, and ongoing technical research—are used to improve understandings of global hunger and influence responses to humanitarian crises.

Hunger Watch’s current thematic research is focused on defining and measuring the magnitude of malnutrition and hunger and their impact on livelihoods around the world. Our research addresses high priority areas in international development and strive to identify hunger’s root causes.

Current research is being carried out on the relationships between:

• Malnutrition and violent conflict
• The impacts of HIV/AIDS on hunger and malnutrition—case studies in Malawi and Zambia
• The impacts of market instability and climate change on malnutrition rates—case studies on the Sahel
• The relationship between malnutrition and morbidity—case studies in Ethiopia

Our findings and recommendations are used to inform and influence humanitarian practices and policies, enabling Action Against Hunger to enhance its own capacities, fine-tune program effectiveness, and influence external stakeholders. Hunger Watch also adds value by distilling local perspectives from ACF’s extensive collaboration with local communities. ACF’s painstaking commitment to community participation plays a key role in the development of effective humanitarian strategies and Hunger Watch can bring these lessons to a broader audience.

The Hunger Watch project is critical to the development of ACF-UK’s organizational identity. Its ability to function independently on behalf of ACF’s International Network and the populations we serve enable ACF to further develop the skills and analytical capacities needed through technical and social research.

Hunger Watch Publications

Feeding Hunger & Insecurity: Field Analysis of Volatile Global Commodity Food Prices, Food Security, & Childhood Malnutrition View [2.41 MB]

Feeding Hunger & Insecurity: The Global Food Price Crisis View [741 KB] Action Against Hunger’s latest Hunger Watch briefing paper, this publication surveys households in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Central African Republic in the wake of the global

Seasons of Hunger: Briefing Paper View [1.74 MB] This Action Against Hunger briefing paper argues that planning for seasonality is an important, though often ignored, principle of smart development.

Water and HIV: Working for Positive Solutions View [2.41 MB] A striking relationships exists between the HIV pandemic and the impact of inadequate water and sanitation resources.

Local Voices: A Community Perspective On HIV and Hunger in Zambia View [9.03 MB] This report documents the findings of Local Voices, a six month research project that provided HIV orphans, vulnerable children and their caretakers with the opportunity to voice the difficul

Hunger and HIV: From Food Crisis to Integrated Care View [4.56 MB] As part of a humanitarian effort to address the AIDS pandemic, Action Against Hunger works to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on vulnerable communities.

Women and Hunger: Women play a central role in the fight against hunger View [2.51 MB] As the principal providers for families around the world, women are key partners in the struggle to end hunger and agencies must incorporate such realities into the very design of their humanitarian p

The Justice of Eating: The Struggle for Food and Dignity in Recent Humanitarian Crises (In Print) Combining thorough analysis with personal testimonies from struggling families, this report assesses the underlying causes of hunger in several African countries.

View all Publications