The Challenge
Millions of people globally lack sufficient access to healthy food. Hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity are significant, large-scale global challenges, particularly for vulnerable populations such as households in poverty, children, women, and people in conflict zones.1 Food access for people in poverty is often constrained by both food availability and affordability, and the effects of food insecurity on individuals’ health, livelihoods, and well-being can be significant and long-lasting.2
The Opportunity
GP and its affiliated funds aim to help people living on less than $5.50/ person/day improve their food security by investing in social enterprises that make healthy food more affordable, more easily available, or both.
Who is Served
Households living on less than $5.50 PPP/person/day in primarily urban and peri-urban neighborhoods where food options are limited, far away, and/or unaffordable.
What is Delivered
Clients must receive healthy food that is lower in cost and/or available in closer proximity than similar alternatives.
Why it is Impactful
Household food security improves, due to:
- reduced expenditure on food, and possibly
- improved quality and/or quantity of food consumed.
Households may also experience:
- improved economic resilience due to ability to use money saved on food for savings or other household expenses,
- improved health due to improved quality or quantity of food consumed, and/or
- time savings, particularly for women.
1.“The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (fao.org), 2022. https://www.fao.org/agrifood-economics/publications/detail/en/c/1599118/.
2. “Fact sheets – Malnutrition” World Health Organization, December 20, 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malnutrition.