Measuring Local Food Systems’ Resilience: Lessons learned from Honduras and Nicaragua

This briefing note presents resilience indicators for measuring local food systems based on community consultations in Honduras and Nicaragua. It advocates for a systems approach that expands food security assessments beyond food availability, access, and utilization to include supporting infrastructure, natural resources, and governance.

• Food system resilience drivers are often similar across different communities and countries, despite food security being context-dependent. Key drivers include access to storage and supporting energy systems, the condition of transport networks and roads for market access, the availability and management of natural resources like land and water, and the capacity of actors for disaster preparedness and early warning monitoring.
• Effective food security assessments must move beyond a narrow focus on food availability, access, and utilization to encompass the entire food system. This includes monitoring the state of natural resources and supporting services such as energy, storage, and transport, as well as the policies and institutions that enable people to address food insecurities.
• The CRiSTAL Food Security tool, an Excel-based tool used in 20 communities across Honduras and Nicaragua, allows practitioners to identify food system components sensitive to climate hazards and develop indicators to track resilience over time. It enables the creation of indicators for resource management and governance, such as decision-making processes and the effectiveness of emergency preparedness programs.
• Institutional and governance factors are critical for improving resilience in both natural systems and infrastructure. Key indicators for monitoring these aspects include the percentage of available resources invested in prevention and emergency response, the presence and use of early warning systems, and the level of community participation in local decision-making.
• The process of developing resilience indicators is as significant as the resulting metrics. To ensure relevance and community buy-in, the process should be iterative and participatory, involving vulnerable groups and a wide range of practitioners and policy-makers from local to national levels, including ministries of finance, trade, and disaster risk prevention.
• Resilience-building measures often provide co-benefits because food system elements are heavily interlinked. For example, improving transport systems can benefit both market access and the efficiency of storage facilities, while building technical and economic capacity for risk management improves the management of all supporting resources and services.

APA

International Institute for Sustainable Development (n.d.). Measuring Local Food Systems’ Resilience: Lessons learned from Honduras and Nicaragua. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_food_resilience_honduras_nicaragua.pdf

Chicago

International Institute for Sustainable Development. Measuring Local Food Systems’ Resilience: Lessons learned from Honduras and Nicaragua. n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_food_resilience_honduras_nicaragua.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=International Institute for Sustainable Development |title=Measuring Local Food Systems’ Resilience: Lessons learned from Honduras and Nicaragua |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_food_resilience_honduras_nicaragua.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{internationalinstituteforsustainabledevelopmentndmeasuring, author = {{International Institute for Sustainable Development}}, title = {{Measuring Local Food Systems’ Resilience: Lessons learned from Honduras and Nicaragua}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/measuring_food_resilience_honduras_nicaragua.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }