A Framework for Food Security via Resilient Agri-Food Supply Chains: The Case of UAE

Abstract

Food security (FS) is one of the most elusive and sought-after objectives worldwide. Securing a country’s self-sufficiency— in the current COVID-19 pandemic era, more than ever—has become a prioritized mission. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, FS is adversely affected by, among others, the scarcity of freshwater, harsh environment, regional conflicts, and rising temperatures. Following the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, exporters placed export restrictions on key food crops, affecting FS in import dependent regions, such as the MENA countries and, more specifically, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper presented a conceptual framework on the key enablers for the UAE agri-food supply chains to obtain the necessary resiliency to achieve FS, through improving policy-making capacity. The proposed approach started with the assessment of the main vulnerabilities of the food system in a global context; from there, the factors that influence vulnerability were investigated, identifying the main global drivers that affect the local food systems, focusing on the UAE. The proposed framework was applied for the design and implementation of an early warning system concerning FS-related incidents.