Briefly outline what is meant by the term “food security”.

Outline one way in which the health of a population can be affected by chronic hunger.

Explain three geographic impacts at a national scale of one named water-borne or sexually transmitted disease.

To what extent were physical factors responsible for one recent famine?

Food security involves four basic concepts. Award [1] for the description of each of the following concepts, up to a maximum of [2]:

• access to food
• sufficient amount
• safety
• nutritional quality/diet.

Award [1] for the problem identified and [1] for further development.

Possibilities include:

• long-term under-nutrition [1] resulting in stunting/body weight loss [1]
• increased vulnerability to disease [1] due to weaker immune system [1]
• high maternal/infant mortality [1] due to lack of nutritious food [1].

Award [1] for recognition of a geographic impact and [1] for further development.

For example, HIV has impacted upon Swaziland’s GDP due to lost working hours / lower productivity [1]. The HIV prevalence rate in Swaziland is around 30% [1].

Impacts might include:

• high death rates/infant mortality rates
• cost of health care
• decrease in tourism
• cost of prevention policies.

Response should apply to one or more countries. If no example at a national scale is given, award a maximum of [5].

A famine may be defined as a widespread shortage of food in a region that leads to malnutrition and hunger and results in increased mortality rates. Famine may be caused by a variety of physical and human factors.

Physical factors might include:

• severe drought, caused by climatic factors
• soil exhaustion, caused by poor farming practices
• crop pests and diseases
• natural hazards, such as major earthquake
• climate change/global warming.

Human factors might include:

• civil war/conflict/refugees
• government policies/corruption
• poor infrastructure
• widespread poverty / high food prices
• rapid population growth/population pressure
• failure of response by outside agencies.

Reference should be made to a recent famine, preferably no earlier than the 1990s. Responses that do not focus on a specific recent famine are unlikely to progress beyond band D.

Good answers might provide a structured evaluation of the causes of a recent famine, and arrive at a considered view of the extent to which physical or human factors might matter most. Another approach might be to show how the factors are interrelated and interact with each other.

For band D, expect some description of physical and/or human factors that have caused a recent famine.

At band E, expect either a more detailed explanation of a range of physical and human factors (do not expect balance), or a structured evaluation of the extent to which particular factors (or the interrelationships between them) were responsible.

At band F, expect both.

Marks should be allocated according to the Paper 2 HL and SL markbands.