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Resilient Food Systems Index (RFSI)
Exploring levers to build and sustain food-system resilience across 60 countries
Resilient Food Systems Index
The RFSI provides a benchmark of countries’ capacity to produce and deliver sufficient, affordable and nutritious food amid an increasingly interconnected and acute risk landscape. It focuses on the structural and forward-looking factors that support long-term resilience, with the aim of providing a practical tool to inform policy, investment and action towards more stable and sustainable food systems.
Informed by independent Economist Enterprise research and supported by Cargill, the RFSI evaluates the resilience of food systems in 60 countries, across four interdependent pillars: affordability; availability; quality and safety; and climate risk responsiveness. The RFSI is based on a dynamic benchmarking model constructed from 71 qualitative and quantitative indicators measuring food-system resilience. The 60 countries included in the RFSI are spread across six regions: Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia-Pacific; Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; Middle East and North Africa; and North America.
Key insights
Resilient food systems require co-ordinated action across policy, capital, infrastructure and technology.
By making interdependencies across these levers explicit, the index highlights where alignment is required, illuminating pathways for action that span the system, from smallholder farmers who produce a significant share of the world’s food to the consumers and institutions who shape demand.
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Accounting for 20% of the world’s food exports, Europe is a critical anchor of the global food system.
Europe is one of the strongest regions on the RFSI. Its performance strengthens food-system resilience within and beyond its borders. However, the region’s strengths rest on foundations under growing strain. What are these pressures? How can Europe manage them to maintain the resilience of its food system?
Index framework
The RFSI is structured around four interdependent pillars. Select a pillar below to see detail.
Global report
Dive into the key research findings from the global index.
Read the report
US report
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Read the report
Europe report
Explore the key research findings from the index for Europe.
Read the report
Data workbook
Explore data tables covering the performance of 60 countries in detail.
Download the workbook
Resilient Food Systems Index
The Food Imperative
The Food Imperative is Economist Enterprise's commitment to transform our global food systems for the future. Designed to arm decision-makers with the data, insights and tools they need to develop more sustainable and secure solutions, The Food Imperative will map and unpack best-practice policies, untangle agro-industrial complexities and pressure-test approaches that promise positive, inclusive economic outcomes.