Giving Compass' Take:

• A new report from the UN indicated that extending roads and increasing education improves resiliency to food crises. 

• How can philanthropy support preventative and preparative approaches to food crises? What other factors can improve resilience? 

• Learn why food insecurity is a worsening trend. 

Another year in education and an extra kilometer of road for every 1,000 people could dramatically improve communities’ ability to withstand food crises, the United Nations has said.

Last year, 124 million people in 51 countries faced crisis levels of hunger, mainly due to conflicts and climate disasters, and experts say the situation is getting worse.

Emergency food assistance costs billions of dollars, but improving road access and ensuring people stayed in education for one more year could save over $1 billion, said a World Food Program (WFP) report.

That is a fifth of the $5.3 billion the WFP spent on food assistance in 2016, when 108 million people in 48 countries suffered acute hunger, said the report.

The biggest impact could be made through promoting peace, according to report, based on analysis of data from 152 countries between 2009 and 2015, of which 77 received WFP's assistance.

A one-point increase in the World Bank’s index of political stability and absence of violence could halve food assistance expenditure, Omamo said.

Read the full article about withstanding food crises at VOA News.