IB Geography • Section F3
Stakeholders in Food & Health
The power of different stakeholders in relation to influence over diets and health
Restored from the original AdornGeo Weebly page • syllabus order preserved
International Organizations, Governments & NGOs
The roles of international organizations (such as the World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and World Health Organization), governments and NGOs in combating food insecurity and disease.
Food and health challenges are governed at several scales. Students compare who supplies emergency relief, who builds long-term capacity, who sets standards and who has the authority to act. The central geographical question is not simply what each organization does, but how funding, access, sovereignty and coordination affect its power.
- WFP concentrates on emergency food assistance, logistics, cash transfers and resilience in crisis-affected places.
- FAO collects evidence, supports agriculture and advises governments on longer-term food systems and rural livelihoods.
- WHO coordinates international health action, surveillance, technical standards and support for national health systems.
- Governments control borders, budgets, infrastructure and policy, while NGOs can often reach communities quickly but depend on access and funding.
- Effectiveness should be evaluated through reach, speed, sustainability, local participation and accountability rather than by intention alone.
Stakeholder power matrix
- Use the original organization activity and key-term notes embedded below.
- Create a four-column comparison for WFP, FAO, WHO and one NGO: role, scale, source of power and limitation.
- Place each stakeholder on a power–interest grid for an acute food crisis and justify every position.
- Write a judgement: which stakeholder is most important during the first 72 hours, and which is most important five years later?
Watch: IB Geography — international organizations combating food insecurity and disease
Watch: How the World Food Programme works towards a world without hunger
Watch: Inside the World Food Programme's humanitarian supply chain
TNCs, Agribusiness & the Media
The influence of TNCs (agribusinesses and the media) in shaping food consumption habits.
Agribusinesses shape diets through control of inputs, processing, distribution, branding and advertising. Their power may widen choice and reduce prices, but it can also normalize ultra-processed diets, weaken local producers and concentrate control over seeds, land and supply chains.
- Trace the food chain from agricultural inputs and commodity trading to processing, retail and advertising.
- Economies of scale and global distribution increase availability, consistency and shelf life.
- Branding, sponsorship, product placement and targeted advertising influence preferences as well as availability.
- Glocalization helps global firms adapt products and marketing to local tastes while retaining a global brand.
- A balanced evaluation considers consumer choice, employment and technology alongside health, environmental and market-power costs.
Follow the power through a food product
- Choose one branded food or drink sold in Thailand and identify the parent company.
- Map its likely inputs, processing, distribution, retail and media chain across places.
- Annotate where the company can influence price, availability, taste and health behaviour.
- Evaluate the statement: media power matters more than agricultural power in shaping diets.
Cargill enquiry
- Watch the IB overview and the Cargill investigation.
- Build an evidence table of benefits, costs and groups affected at local, national and global scales.
- Decide whether regulation, consumer choice or corporate responsibility offers the strongest check on TNC power.
Watch: IB Geography — TNCs, agribusiness and media shaping food consumption
Watch: Cargill and the hidden power behind global food chains
Gender Roles in Food & Health
Gender roles related to food and health, including food production/acquisition and disparities in health.
Gender is a geographical lens on access and power. Women make major contributions to farming, food preparation and household care, yet in many places have less access to land, credit, technology, education, markets and decision-making. Health disparities also vary by income, age, culture and place, so gender should never be treated as a single universal experience.
- Separate participation in agricultural labour from control over land, income and decisions.
- Unequal access to productive resources can reduce yields, household nutrition and resilience.
- Food allocation, unpaid care work, mobility and education affect both acquisition of food and access to health care.
- Gender intersects with wealth, ethnicity, rurality, age and legal status.
- Empowerment strategies should be assessed for agency and long-term structural change, not participation numbers alone.
From description to explanation
- Watch the IB lesson and read the original note summary embedded below.
- Create a systems diagram linking land, credit, education, labour, decision-making, yields, income, nutrition and health.
- Add one feedback loop showing how a health disparity can reinforce unequal access to food production.
- Complete the original essay planner and include a counterargument showing that outcomes vary between places.
Watch: IB Geography — gender roles related to food production, acquisition and health
Famine: Governance, Media & International Aid
Factors affecting the severity of famine, including governance, the power of the media and access to international aid. One case study of the issues affecting a famine-stricken country or area.
Famine is not explained by food supply alone. Entitlement, conflict, displacement, prices, infrastructure, state capacity, humanitarian access and attention all influence who can obtain food and whether assistance reaches them. Students should distinguish an environmental trigger from the political and economic conditions that turn a hazard into disaster.
- Governance can reduce famine through early warning, social protection, market support and secure aid access—or intensify it through conflict, corruption and exclusion.
- Media visibility can mobilize donations and political pressure, but selective coverage may distort priorities or simplify causes.
- International aid can save lives rapidly, yet timing, access, coordination and effects on local markets shape its success.
- Use food availability deficit and food entitlement deficit together when explaining severity.
- A strong case study connects physical triggers to political decisions and unequal vulnerability at a named place and time.
Why does hunger become famine?
- Use the interactive famine evidence, the IB video and the Horn of Africa materials below.
- Construct a causal web with drought or harvest failure as only one starting point.
- Code every cause as physical, economic, political or social, then identify the three strongest connections.
- Rank governance, media and access to aid by influence over severity; support the ranking with located evidence.
Case-study answer
- Build a located fact file for the Horn of Africa with a map, timeline, named groups and contrasting scales.
- Explain how conflict, displacement, drought, prices and humanitarian access interacted.
- Write a ten-mark response evaluating the claim that famine is primarily a failure of governance.
Watch: IB Geography — factors affecting famine severity and case study
Horn of Africa food crisis
A located investigation of the interacting physical and human causes of food insecurity, its uneven impacts and the limits placed on response across Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa.
- Drought, harvest and livestock losses
- Conflict, displacement and market access
- Malnutrition, disease and unequal vulnerability
- Governance, media attention and humanitarian access
- Emergency relief compared with long-term resilience