How Does Earth Observation Support Decision-Making for Food Security?

Functional decision making requires to be properly informed and to be based on solid evidence. However, too often information is developed in isolation and decisions are taken in absence of clear and reliable information. Integration of climate data, economic analysis, nutritional and health data is becoming a basic condition to inform policy makers on food security.
The recently developed Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) is a standardised scale that combines food security, nutrition and livelihood information into a clear statement about the nature and severity of a crisis and includes implications for strategic response.  It is primarily a tool for analyzing and classifying the severity of food security situations at the national and sub national levels (usually based on livelihood zones). All analysis is backed up by both quantitative (ex. mortality rates) and qualitative evidence (ex. widespread conflict, asset stripping). The IPC is also a process whereby key food security organizations and the national government literally sit together to look at the evidence and come to a common consensus on the severity of a crisis. This makes setting priorities and planning a well coordinated response easier.
Moreover, a new information technology platform will be presented: the GIEWS workstation. It is based on the state-of-the-art open-source technologies designed to manage food security related information and to serve as main information management tool at global, regional and national levels.. The application handles different types of information such as remote sensing data, GIS layers, databases and texts. It is structured as a network that connects individual installations of the application to facilitate information sharing using a peer-to-peer protocol. The Workstation includes analytical tools to visualize and analyze data as maps, tables and charts and it is used international organizations and national institutions to monitor changes of environmental and socio-economic parameters that may impact on food security.  Remote sensing data such as SPOT NDVI and other global and regional products are regularly used for crop and vegetation monitoring. 
Both tools have been developed in collaboration with several institutions (including WFP, JRC, Save the Children US and UK, Care international) and funded by key donors such as the European Union, DFID, USAID and others.