The risk of famine is rising in many countries today. Bold changes to famine information and response systems are urgently needed to improve capacities to prevent famine. To this end, the paper identifies six insights from social‐ecological systems (SES) thinking for understanding and preventing famine. It argues that a state of famine emerges from human–environment interdependencies, complex causality, and non‐linear system dynamics, shaped by history and context. The likelihood of famine can be reduced by strengthening resilience to the diverse stresses and shocks that drive destitution, food insecurity, undernutrition, morbidity, and mortality. SES thinking offers new opportunities to understand the dynamics of famine, diagnose lesser‐known drivers, pinpoint new metrics, ascertain leverage points for intervention, and develop conceptual frameworks to inform policy. SES concepts and methods could also support the development of practical analytical tools to guide decisionmakers on how, where, and when to intervene most effectively and efficiently to strengthen resilience to the drivers of famine.

中文翻译：

---

理解和预防饥荒的社会生态系统思考的见解

如今许多国家的饥荒风险正在上升。迫切需要对饥荒信息和响应系统进行大胆改变，以提高预防饥荒的能力。为此，本文从社会生态系统（SES）思维中提出了六种见解，用于理解和预防饥荒。它认为，饥荒状态是由历史和背景塑造的人类与环境的相互依赖、复杂的因果关系和非线性系统动力学产生的。通过加强对导致贫困、粮食不安全、营养不良、发病和死亡的各种压力和冲击的抵御能力，可以减少发生饥荒的可能性。SES 思维提供了新的机会来了解饥荒的动态、诊断鲜为人知的驱动因素、确定新指标、确定干预的杠杆点以及开发概念框架来为政策提供信息。SES概念和方法还可以支持实用分析工具的开发，以指导决策者如何、在何处以及何时进行最有效和高效的干预，以增强对饥荒驱动因素的抵御能力。