The new Strategic Framework of Cooperation to address food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide has been launched on 27 June. The European Commission, together with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reached an agreement to launch this Strategic Framework.

This agreement reinforces the partnership between all four organisations around a clear and common objective of food security for the most vulnerable while sharing the roles and actions. It will also help foster synergies among the agencies and ensure continuity between relief, rehabilitation and longer term development actions. With these institutions joining forces, the international community will be better equipped to achieve better food security and nutrition on the ground both in the short and the longer term.

The aim of food assistance is to provide the most appropriate response to reduce the food insecurity faced by the most vulnerable people affected by natural disasters and other crises. An appropriate humanitarian food assistance response considers not only food distribution but the whole range of food assistance tools available, for example food-for-work and cash & vouchers. The aim, therefore, is to ensure that the most effective and efficient response is provided to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in a given crisis context.

Humanitarian food assistance is the single largest aid sector in the EU's humanitarian budget, representing more than €1,1 billion from 2007 to 2010. Additionally, around €850 million is allocated to fight food insecurity each year through food assistance.