Introduction

Over the past decade, Southeast Asia was close to halving its undernourishment from 18.1 per cent of its population in 2005 to 9.7 per cent in 2014, or a reduction of 41 million people undernourished from as much as 101.7 million undernourished in 2005. This was largely from the successful initiatives that increased per capita income and reduced poverty across the ASEAN member states (AMSs). However, regional statistics show a potential reversal in these trends: over the past three years, Southeast Asia's undernourishment increased by 3 million from 2014 to 2016.

This coincides with the global situation, wherein global undernourishment increased for the first time in a decade from 2015 to 2016, by 19.8 million people, followed by an increase of 20.2 million from 2016 to 2017. It runs counter to the trend of falling global undernourishment which the world achieved in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, from 14.2 per cent in 2005 to 10.6 per cent in 2015.

These statistics are fuelling fears that the region, and the world over, could be seeing a new era of increasing food insecurity. This chapter therefore critically reviews the state of the region's food insecurity, focusing on the issue of increasing undernourishment, alongside an assessment of the national and regional gaps in addressing this issue. It then provides recommendations on how these mechanisms can be tweaked to better respond to this non-traditional security (NTS) threat.

Food Security Framework and Measurement of Undernutrition

Food security is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a “situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. Following this definition, the framework adopted by the NTS Centre in studying food security distinguishes four key facets. The first is food availability, whether there is sufficient food to meet demand, at the global, regional, country, and subregional/subcountry levels. This is primarily affected by factors which affect the production side, in terms of crop yields and land allocation for agricultural purposes.