Can MENA Reach the Sustainable Development Goals? An Overview of Opportunities and Challenges for Food and Nutrition Security

Persistent poverty, inequalities and growing conflict are among the obstacles hindering the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Arab world. Achieving food and nutrition security in particular has been an ongoing challenge. Despite much effort and progress over the years, this challenge is now being further compounded in the context of emerging conflicts and economic challenges. The regional conflicts of the Middle East and North Africa truly became global in 2015, as evidenced by the massive increase in people fleeing violence and its consequences: threats against their lives, deprivation, and hunger. The Syrian conflict alone has caused the death of 200,000 people, the internal displacement of 7.6 million people, and the fleeing of more than 4 million people (UNHCR 2015). While the flow of refugees from Syria and other conflict-ridden countries to Europe garnered major media attention, neighboring countries—including Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey—have been challenged by a much bigger inflow (Maystadt and Breisinger 2015). In fact, all Arab countries combined hosted about 7 million refugees in 2014 (Fig. 10.1), or about 40 percent of all refugees globally. On the flip side of the coin, more than 6 million of the refugees in the world originate from the Arab region.