The High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) on food security and nutrition was established as part of the 2009 reform of the international governance of food security, to advise the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) which is the foremost intergovernmental and international platform dealing with food security and nutrition.

In 2009, the Committee on World Food Security went through a reform to make it more effective by including a wider group of stakeholders and increasing its ability to promote policies that reduce food insecurity. An important part of this reform was the creation of the HLPE to keep CFS up to date with world wide knowledge and abreast of emerging trends in food security. The HLPE should lead to more informed policy debates and improve the quality, effectiveness and coherence of food security and nutrition policies from local to international levels.