World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

This secondary literature review and analysis of the food security situation in Libya was undertaken to provide background information on the situation predating the civil conflict which began mid-February 2011 with a popular uprising in Benghazi. It aims at estimating the levels of pre-crisis household food insecurity and identifying the underlying and basic factors, including food production and trade, household economic access to food (including poverty levels, sources of income and expenditures), food consumption patterns, and social assistance programmes.  The secondary data analysis was complemented by the field observations made during the joint FAO/WFP mission to Eastern Libya in April 2011.