The impact of the 2015‒2016 El Niño weather phenomenon has been one of the most intense and widespread in the past one hundred years. The agriculture, food security and nutritional status of 60 million people around the globe is affected by El Niño-related droughts, floods and extreme hot and cold weather.

This issue of Budget Track is a special issue focusing on Nutrition. It is a part of the efforts, to deepen the policy discourse in India on nutrition specifically from the public investment perspective.

This document serves to outline El Niño’s major implications on food and nutrition security in the southern Africa region and highlights immediate and long-term preparedness requirements.

This paper examines the different approaches and methodologies for classification of countries in terms of their food and nutrition security conditions. Its objective is to identify a number of country groups and thus provide some guidance about potential policies to address food and nutrition insecurity.