In SADC, food security is defined as being when sufficient food is available to meet the nutritional needs of everyone in the region and when all members of a household, nation, or region have the means to access the food they need for a normal, healthy, and active life. The food security program aims to achieve this by improving people's access to food through measures to raise incomes and by implementing food aid programs. The new strategy attempts to meet the challenges outlined above and comprises three major programs. The first is a program to improve food security, especially at the national and household levels. Elements of these strategies are common to the agricultural development program.
Agricultural development is a longer-term concept.
The strategies in this program are aimed at creating a more widely based sector that provides more opportunities for employment and for income generation and, eventually, stimulates a faster growth of secondary industry. Rural infrastructural projects and policy changes are also envisaged to allow resources to flow into productive agriculture-related activities. Finally, the natural resource conservation program is designed to ensure that natural resources are used optimally and that the sustainability of agriculture and of other economic activities is assured. Climate change, or the risk of it, impacts on all three of these programs. In the context of ensuring food security, the capacity to reduce the impact of sudden fluctuations in output on the availability of food in the region will become essential.