About us

Hunger and malnutrition are a consequence of injustice and discrimination. Today, more than 2,3 billion people do not have access to adequate food, which is more than 30% of the global population.

Food production and consumption are increasingly dictated by big industry, with many governments turning a blind eye. As a result, profit is being prioritized over our own human rights and nature.

It is this, together with the uneven distribution of land and natural resources, ecological destruction, sexism and racism – to mention just a few – that explains why so many people face hunger and malnutrition.

But, we believe that they are fully preventable.

Since it was founded in 1986, FIAN International has been advocating for the right to food and nutrition. We support grassroots communities and movements in their struggles against right to food violations. Through our national sections and networks, we work in over 50 countries around the world. 

To explain who we are in a nutshell:

  • We expose the social injustice behind our food systems, from growing and harvesting to procurement. The issue is not only what you eat, but how it is produced.
  • We struggle for an egalitarian distribution of resources, so people can feed themselves. We don’t provide food.
  • We fight for fair access to food. We don’t promote the increase of food production: There is already enough food to feed the entire world.
  • We work with a wide network of social movements and civil society actors around the world. We don’t go solo.
  • Affected communities tell us what the problem is and we bring their voices to policy spaces. We don’t speak for them. They know best!
  • We see food as something more than to keep us alive. We see food as part of our own identity and cultural legacy.
  • We encourage the mobilization and organization of people who want to change the world.

Learn more about the core of our work, by checking the struggles we support, the frequently asked questions below, and our strategic plan.

Learn more about our organization through our statutes and our history

Learn more about our integrity management

Frequently asked questions

What is food?
We tend to associate “food” with a product that we can buy in a store. Something that is drank, chewed and swallowed, and with enough nutrients and caloric energy that allow us to keep moving and staying alive. Yet, food goes beyond. Food is our source of life, identity and social relations. Food determines how we relate to ourselves, nature and others, and makes it possible for us to be born, grow, develop, learn, work, play, make love, give birth, breastfeed, and be fulfilled and socially active in our societies.
Can we really choose what we eat?
The answer is yes and no.

On the one hand, the current political context lies behind every meal we consume. Hundreds of decisions made through food politics are constantly influencing our lives. Be by our cultures, local authorities, national and international laws, or aggressive advertising, we are conditioned when it comes to eating. Behind the increasingly influence over our diets are large corporations, which more and more determine what it is on our plates. Without realizing, we might be prioritizing processed, fortified food, instead of fresh vegetables and fruits. Have you ever wondered why?

But on the other hand, we can proactively try to understand the world that surrounds us, the environment we depend on, and take action. Not only can we consciously make better choices when it comes to food, but we can also become politically active in a way that it contributes to the protection of all people’s human rights and nature. This brings us to the following question.
Is eating a political act?
Eating can certainly become a political act, if we want to.

While the tomato we buy at the local market might have grown in a sustainable way for the environment and might have contributed to the local economy of small-scale producers, the tea we are buying at the supermarket may drag a history of exploitation to tea plantation workers near our homes or on the other corner of the world. These options entail very different choices. If you want to be active against social injustice, this could be just the start. Yet, there is much more to do.

Why do hunger and malnutrition exist?
There is enough food to feed the world, so it is not a question of scarcity. Politics, economy and ideology are all at the very bottom of the structural causes that determine hunger and malnutrition around the globe. In other words, the inadequate intake of food of a family or a whole society may be the result of one or various reasons such as land distribution, income, sex and gender identity, discrimination based on race and ethnicity, to mention just a few.

Why work right to food and not food security?

The right to food is more than a condition. It is the right that every human being has, alone or in community with others, to be free from hunger and malnutrition, to have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food – in quality and quantity – that is nutritious and culturally acceptable. It is also about our right to access all means for its procurement, like land, water and seeds, in a sustainable and dignified manner, while ensuring the highest level of physical, emotional and intellectual development.

As you see, food security is just an element of the right to food. Behind every violation of our right to food there is social injustice that needs to be tackled.
Why should we transform the global food systems?
Our mindset and the current ways in which food is produced must also change if we want to ensure that each person in the world is able to adequately exercise their right to food. Food sovereignty, as a political framework and agro-ecology as the key way to transform food production and consumption, are concrete alternatives to the predominant industrial food systems.

Transition to just and sustainable food systems is a must. This means moving from a focus on food as a commodity to a focus on food as commons embedded in socio-ecological and cultural contexts, putting people and peoples at the center, social equity and justice, striving for a democratic control over natural resources and wealth strengthening knowledge and skills of the small-scale food producers, working with nature and not against it, valuing food providers, reducing distances between food providers and consumers thus localizing food systems and strengthening local control of how food is produced and distributed.
Is there hope?
Of course there is!

But that totally depends on us. From fostering and buying at local markets and participating in food councils, to standing up against the violation of human rights of all people, we can prevent that 821 million of human beings go hungry every day. We can speak up against the dominant food supply chains that lead a billion more to suffering malnutrition, and advocate for sustainable and local food systems that makes us and nature healthy.

FIAN International believes that there is hope and tries to address all root causes of hunger and malnutrition, often unnoticed. You can become politically active in your community to support the struggle for the right to food, support our work, or all at the same time!

FIAN in the world

International Secretariat

Heidelberg office
Willy-Brandt-Platz 5
69115 Heidelberg
phone: +49-6221 65300 30
fax: +49-6221 6530033

Geneva office
Maison des Associations 15
Rue des Savoises 
CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland 
phone: +41-22 328 03 41 
fax: +41-22 328 03 42 



FIAN Burkina Faso
03 BP7104
Ouaga 03 (BF)
Burkina Faso
FIAN Uganda
P.O BOX 24612 Kampala
Tel: +256 785 927829


FIAN Zambia
Plot 2B, Zimbabwe Road,
Rhodespark, Lusaka
Tel: +260777505228






FIAN Brasil
CLN 413 BL
BL Salas 219-220
Goiânia - GO, Brazil
phone: +55 61 3224-0454

FIAN Colombia
Carrera 10 No. 24 – 76 
Oficina 302
Bogotá, Colombia
phone: + 57 (1) 2840047 Ext. 22.    

FIAN Ecuador
La Isla N27-24 y Jose Valentin Sector de Las Casas
Quito, Ecuador
phone: +593-22237622fax: 
+593-23 203 834

FIAN Mexico
Huatusco 39, Col. Roma Sur, 
Deleg. Cuauhtémoc, C.P.06760,
México D. F., Mexico
phone: +52 55 5211 6256
fax: +52 55 5211 6256

FIAN Honduras
Colonia Tepeyac Boulevard
Las Minitas Apartamentos
Vista Hermosa No. 17
Tegucigalpa, MDC Honduras
Mailing address: Apdo. Postal 5303
Tegucigalpa. A.M.d.C., Honduras
phone: +504-213 9258
fax: +504-232 6780
FIAN Paraguay



FIAN India
5/26 - A (Ground Floor)
Jangpura B
New Delhi - 110014, India
phone: +91-11 24375286/ 24371223

FIAN Indonesia


FIAN Nepal
PO Box 11363
Kathmandu, Nepal
phone: +977-1 50 11 609
fax: +977-1 55 27 834

FIAN Sri Lanka







FIAN Austria
Schwarzspanierstraße 15/3/1
A-1090 Wien, Austria
phone: +43-1 - 2350239-11
fax: +43-1 2350239-20

FIAN Belgium
Rue van Elewijck 35
1050 Brussel, Belgium
phone: +32-264 084 17

FIAN Germany
Gottesweg 104
50939 Cologne, Germany
phone: +49-221 474 491 10
fax: +49-221 474 491 11
FIAN Norway
Kirkegata 5
0153 Oslo, Norway
phone: +47-901 38 264
fax: +47 22 47 92 01
FIAN Portugal
FIAN Sweden
Tegelviksgatan 40
116 41 Stockholm, Sweden
phone: +46-864 393 47    
FIAN Switzerland
Maison des Associations
15, Rue des Savoises
CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland
phone: +41-22 328 0340
fax: +41-22 328 0342