What progress has been made in the southern Africa region in understanding, and appropriately responding to, transitory and chronic food insecurity? Emerging from food security crises from 2001-03, there is a widely shared consensus on the need for new and more appropriate intervention models. This review is an assessment of changes made at sequential levels, changes in understanding of the problem, how this has been incorporated into policy, and how programming has changed to align with the stated policy objectives.

The authors make a number of observations. Selected examples are:

* Analysis of the food security problem:
o while the 2001-03 crisis is commonly presented as ‘regional’, the underlying causes vary significantly between and within countries. This implies the need for more nuanced and nationally tailored solutions
- the appreciation of the relative severity of the transient and chronic crises is still limited. The reality is that the majority of the hungry suffer chronic hunger
- the dominant analysis explains food security in terms of inadequate food access. There is strong global evidence on the importance of female education, womens’ empowerment and health.