Edited by Edited by Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte, this book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity, and food security.
Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and various other international bodies. The final part discusses civil society responses to relevant changes and developments in these issues, how they affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures.
You can access the Spanish version here: http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-118094-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining
New FAO Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis"
Language
English
Description
The Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization has published the new Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis".
The Global Economic Slowdown Underscores Urgency of Addressing Long-Term Challenges.
More than one billion people are undernourished worldwide. FAO estimates show a significant deterioration of an already disappointing trend witnessed over the past ten years. The large increase in the number of undernourished people in 2009 underlines the urgency of tackling the root causes of hunger swiftly and effectively.
The current global economic slowdown—following soaring food prices in 2006-2008—lies at the core of the sharp increase in world hunger. It has reduced incomes and employment opportunities of the poor and significantly lowered their access to food.
Changes in Staple Food Prices in Selected Countries
Language
English
Description
This bulletin provides information on price changes of the most commonly consumed staples and potential impacts on the cost of a food basket. Staples contribute 40 – 80% of energy intake for most vulnerable population groups in developing countries. A small increase in staple prices has a high impact on their overall food consumption, especially when the food basket is composed of very few staples.
The bulletin covers 56 countries over the period from March to June 2009 .
How Much Did Developing Country Domestic Staple Food Prices Increase During the World Food Crisis? How Much Have They Declined?
Language
English
Description
Using data from a new FAO price database, it was found found that domestic staple food prices in developing countries typically increased by 48 percent in real terms during the world food crisis. Given that most of the world’s poor are net food consumers, such large price increases almost certainly had severe impacts on the effective purchasing power of the poor, which in turn likely affected the number of meals eaten as well as the nutritional quality of food consumed. While domestic prices have declined from their peaks in most countries, the declines have been small thus far and real prices are typically 19 percent higher than they were two years earlier, even after accounting for inflation. Thus, many poor people are faced with higher food prices in the midst of a global economic slowdown.
How much did speculation affect the formation of rice prices during the rapid escalation of prices in world markets late in 2007 and early in 2008, through what mechanisms, what will happen as these influences unwind, and how is the story for rice different from other commodities?
HIGH-LEVEL TASK FORCE ON THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS. COMPREHENSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION
Language
English
Description
Given the immediate consequences of the food price crisis, especially for vulnerable groups, countries have already mobilized resources to provide additional food assistance and other safety nets, assist farmers to maintain and boost productivity in the next growing seasons, and begin implementing policy reforms to improve access to food and agricultural inputs. In many countries, the members of the High-Level Task Force (HLTF), regional development banks, bilateral agencies, local and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement have been supporting these efforts.
As set out by the CEB (Chief Executives Board), the aim of the HLTF was to create a prioritized plan of action for addressing the current crisis and coordinate its implementation. The Comprehensive Framework for Action (CFA) responds to this request.
How biofuel policies are deepening poverty and accelerating climate change
Language
English
Description
Policy paper by Oxfam, June 2008.
Biofuels are presented in rich countries as a solution to two crises: the climate crisis and the oil crisis. But they may not be a solution to either, and instead are contributing to a third: the current food crisis.
Meanwhile the danger is that they allow rich-country governments to avoid difficult but urgent decisions about how to reduce consumption of oil, while offering new avenues to continue expensive support to agriculture at the cost of taxpayers. In the meantime, the most serious costs of these policies – deepening poverty and hunger, environmental degradation, and accelerating climate change – are being ‘dumped’ on developing countries.
Food and Fuel Prices—Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy Responses
Language
English
Description
Prepared by the Fiscal Affairs, Policy Development and Review, and Research Departments, Internation Monetary Fund (IMF), June 2008.
This report provides a first broad assessment of the impact of the surge in food and fuel prices on the balance of payments, budgets, prices, and poverty of a large sample of countries. It reviews countries’ macroeconomic policy responses to date and also discusses Fund advice for managing the price increases. Policies should (i) ensure that food and finance reaches the most affected countries as quickly as possible, (ii) include targeted and scaled-up social measures, and (iii) avoid high costs in terms of macroeconomic instability or loss in future agricultural production. Collaborating with international partners, the Fund also stands ready to provide balance of payments assistance. As the paper presents an initial assessment of a still-evolving situation, the somewhat tentative nature of the analysis should be borne in mind.
Last week’s FAO Food Summit has come and gone. What is there to show after three days of intensive discussion? Very little – the citizens of Rome can again travel freely around their city without being held up by visiting dignitaries travelling between airport, hotel and the FAO, or their wives (almost all visiting dignitaries are male) travelling to and fro between these hotels and via Condotti. But for the poor of the world? By Christopher L. Gilbert
Farmers do not reap benefits of rising food prices
Language
English
Description
A new study has found that farmers do not reap benefits of rising food prices, as there is no rise in the price they receive.
According to a report in the Chicago Journal, the study was conducted on the commodity coffee market in Uganda, where it was found that when prices rise, coffee windfalls don't fully reach the growers.
Coffee is the world's largest agricultural commodity, and is also one of the world's most volatile. Large global coffee price fluctuations mean coffee has seen many periods of rapidly increasing prices.
But the research shows that when global coffee prices rise, farmers do not see the same rise in the price they receive.
Have Recent Increases in International Cereal Prices Been Transmitted to Domestic Economies? The experience in seven large Asian countries
Language
English
Description
International cereal prices (in US dollar terms) have been increasing since 2003, but it is domestic prices that affect food consumption and production. The paper analyzes, for seven large Asian countries, the extent to which domestic prices have increased since 2003 and presents several conclusions.
Soaring food grain prices in recent months have caused serious concern around the world. In Asia the estimated 1.2 billion poor people who spend on average 60% of their income on food have been hit hard. Food price inflation severely stresses the most vulnerable groups. High and rising food prices are threatening to reverse the gains in poverty reduction in the Asia and Pacific region, undermining the global fight against poverty. If high food prices persist, the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015 could be jeopardized.
This paper explains why food prices are rising and how ADB is responding to this crisis.
Analyse critique des causes de la flambée des prix agricoles mondiaux
Language
English
Description
La présente note vise à clarifier et hiérarchiser les causes essentielles de la flambée récente des prix agricoles et alimentaires telles que diffusées par les médias, voire les économistes. Elle ne revient pas par contre sur les émeutes de la faim bien documentées ni sur les aspects agronomiques et environnementaux liés notamment à la production de biocarburants. On commencera par classer les causes essentielles de cette flambée des prix agricoles, flambée que l'on mesurera ensuite pour les principaux produits avant de faire l'analyse des causes par produit puis d'identifier la responsabilité des principaux pays – Etats-Unis (EU), UE, Chine, Inde, Brésil – et celle de la spéculation financière. On se centrera principalement sur les céréales et oléagineux, sachant que la hausse de ces constituants de l'alimentation animale s'est répercutée sur les prix des viandes et produits laitiers.
Economics of Biofuel Production in the Pacific Northwest
Language
English
Description
PointPoint presentation by Prof Young, Washington State University, USA. Please access the file using the link (copy and paste the link below in your internet browser)
http://www.web2fordev.net/fileadmin/user_upload/fsn/docs/Young_01_Economics_of_Biofuel_Production_in_the_Pacific_Northwest_fst1.ppt
As the file is heavy (10 Mb), please contact fsn-moderator@fao.org if you have difficulty downloading/reading the file.
Food Prices and Inflation in Developing Asia: Is Poverty Reduction Coming to an End?
Language
English
Description
This Special Report was prepared by a team from the Economics and Research Department. Food prices have increased sharply since mid-2007 and accelerated alarmingly in early 2008. Rice and wheat prices have spiked at levels not seen in over three decades. This threatens to exacerbate poverty in developing Asia by reducing the real incomes of the already poor, while pushing many others below the poverty line. The report proposes appropriate policy responses to the challenge of food price inflation in order to avoid the reversal of the gains in poverty reduction in the region.
Report on agricultural commodities of critical importance to global food and feed markets. They constitute much of the world’s food consumption, generate income to farmers and represent the largest portion of food import expenditures across the world. The analysis in the report puts in perspective market developments in recent months with a view to provide some insights into how the outlook might unfold for the commodities covered during the coming months.
In recent weeks, international prices of many agricultural commodities have started to fall and early indications do not preclude further declines in the coming months, however, prices are unlikely to return to the low levels of previous years due to a host of reasons, including the escalated cost of inputs.
To access the full report, please follow the link:
Rising food prices in developing countries: causes, consequences and solutions
Language
English
Description
Many causes have been suggested since the start of the food crisis in developing countries. What role have these various causes really played in the current situation? What will be the consequences of rising prices for food security and agriculture in these countries? What are the possible means of managing and finding a way out of this crises? CIRAD suggests some clues and answers, gleaned from the expertise its researchers have built up, and their in-depth knowledge of the countries affected.
Rapid increases in food prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008 attracted high-level policy attention. During the course of 2008, the United Nations organized an inter-agency High-Level Taskforce on the Global Food Security Crisis and issued a Comprehensive Framework for Action. Over 40 heads of state and government attended a High-Level Conference on World Food Security, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and focused mainly on how to address the price increases. Donors pledged more than US $12 billion to assist low-income, food-importing countries in coping with the effects of soaring prices.
In this paper, we argue that the disproportionate attention that policy solutions to the food price crisis give to rural dwellers is likely misplaced. Although in developing countries rural poverty is often deeper and more widespread than urban poverty, rural dwellers are often net producers of food, frequently of the very staples whose prices are rising. We outline the pathways of impact of food price rises on urban dwellers; highlight the evidence so far on how those impacts have played out during this crisis; and describe current policy responses and suggest how to improve them to better protect the urban poor in the short- and longer-term
Edited by Edited by Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte, this book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity, and food security.
Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and various other international bodies. The final part discusses civil society responses to relevant changes and developments in these issues, how they affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures.
You can access the Spanish version here: http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-118094-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining
New FAO Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis"
Language
English
Description
The Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization has published the new Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis".
The Global Economic Slowdown Underscores Urgency of Addressing Long-Term Challenges.
More than one billion people are undernourished worldwide. FAO estimates show a significant deterioration of an already disappointing trend witnessed over the past ten years. The large increase in the number of undernourished people in 2009 underlines the urgency of tackling the root causes of hunger swiftly and effectively.
The current global economic slowdown—following soaring food prices in 2006-2008—lies at the core of the sharp increase in world hunger. It has reduced incomes and employment opportunities of the poor and significantly lowered their access to food.
How Much Did Developing Country Domestic Staple Food Prices Increase During the World Food Crisis? How Much Have They Declined?
Language
English
Description
Using data from a new FAO price database, it was found found that domestic staple food prices in developing countries typically increased by 48 percent in real terms during the world food crisis. Given that most of the world’s poor are net food consumers, such large price increases almost certainly had severe impacts on the effective purchasing power of the poor, which in turn likely affected the number of meals eaten as well as the nutritional quality of food consumed. While domestic prices have declined from their peaks in most countries, the declines have been small thus far and real prices are typically 19 percent higher than they were two years earlier, even after accounting for inflation. Thus, many poor people are faced with higher food prices in the midst of a global economic slowdown.
How much did speculation affect the formation of rice prices during the rapid escalation of prices in world markets late in 2007 and early in 2008, through what mechanisms, what will happen as these influences unwind, and how is the story for rice different from other commodities?
A Call for a Strategic U.S. Approach to the Global Food Crisis
Language
English
Description
A Report of the CSIS (CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES) Task Force on the Global Food Crisis Core Findings and Recommendations (dated July 2008), calling for modernizing and doubling emergency assistance, making rural development and agricultural productivity foreign policy priorities, revising the U.S. approach to biofuels, urgently acting to conclude the Doha Development Round, and creating a strategic U.S. approach to global food security. Co-chairs Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Robert P. Casey (D-PA) charged the task force with identifying a food security plan that the Bush administration, the presidential campaigns, Congress, and the next administration could embrace.
Food and Fuel Prices—Recent Developments, Macroeconomic Impact, and Policy Responses
Language
English
Description
Prepared by the Fiscal Affairs, Policy Development and Review, and Research Departments, Internation Monetary Fund (IMF), June 2008.
This report provides a first broad assessment of the impact of the surge in food and fuel prices on the balance of payments, budgets, prices, and poverty of a large sample of countries. It reviews countries’ macroeconomic policy responses to date and also discusses Fund advice for managing the price increases. Policies should (i) ensure that food and finance reaches the most affected countries as quickly as possible, (ii) include targeted and scaled-up social measures, and (iii) avoid high costs in terms of macroeconomic instability or loss in future agricultural production. Collaborating with international partners, the Fund also stands ready to provide balance of payments assistance. As the paper presents an initial assessment of a still-evolving situation, the somewhat tentative nature of the analysis should be borne in mind.
While there has been widespread reporting of the riots that have broken out around the world as a result of the global food crisis, little attention has been paid to the way forward. The solution is a radical shift in power away from the international financial institutions and global development agencies, so that smallscale farmers, still responsible for most food consumed throughout the world, set agricultural policy.
Three interrelated issues need to be tackled: land, markets and farming itself.
Market Development Reports Impact of Rising Food Prices - EU 27 2008
Language
English
Description
Rising food and commodity prices have been the subject of heated political debate among the governing bodies of the European Union. This report summarizes some of the basicelements of this debate within the context of the EU Common Agric ultural Policy (CAP). As the EU-27 Member States collectively help shape the CAP, and often implement it within the context of local conditions, this report should be read in conjunction with other GAIN reports from EU Member States Capitals.
High Food Prices: The What, Who, and How of Proposed Policy Actions
Language
English
Description
The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition situation of people around the world, especially the poor in developing countries; about inflation; and—in some countries—about civil unrest.
IFPRI drew attention to the problem early on and identified the main actions needed to prevent and mitigate the emerging crisis.
This paper aims to identify more specifically what needs to be done now. The set of policy actions, and in particular their sequencing, scale, adaptation to diverse regional and national conditions, and the arrangements for and governance of their implementation, need frameworks and clarity.
High Food Prices: The What, Who and How of Proposed Policy Actions - IFPRI Policy Brief May 2008
Language
English
Description
The complex causes of the current food and agriculture crisis require a comprehensive response.
In view of the urgency of assisting people and countries in need, the first set of policy actions —an emergency package— consists of steps that can yield immediate impact...
Rising food prices in developing countries: causes, consequences and solutions
Language
English
Description
Many causes have been suggested since the start of the food crisis in developing countries. What role have these various causes really played in the current situation? What will be the consequences of rising prices for food security and agriculture in these countries? What are the possible means of managing and finding a way out of this crises? CIRAD suggests some clues and answers, gleaned from the expertise its researchers have built up, and their in-depth knowledge of the countries affected.
Countries Policies and Programs To Address Rising Food Prices
Language
English
Description
World Bank report on "Countries Policies and Programs To Address Rising Food Prices"
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NEWS/Resources/risingfoodprices_chart_apr08.pdf
The MDG Gap Task Force has assessed the global commitments contained in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ratified by Governments at the various international events that followed the Millennium Summit.
The main message of the report is that while there has been progress on several counts, important gaps remain in delivering on the global commitments in the areas of aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies and affordable essential medicines. The weakening of the world economy and the
steep rises in food and energy prices threaten to reverse some of the progress made in the various dimensions of human development.
This report presents the findings of a case study looking at irrigation system in Injil District, Herat Province, Afghanistan. The purpose of the study was to understand inequities and inequalities in irrigation distribution in a typical canal irrigation system.
Two canals of the Hari Rud river system flowing in Injil District, Herat Province, were selected as the focus of the study.
FAO Diversification booklets aim to raise awareness and provide information about opportunities at the farm and local community level to increase small-scale farmer income. Each booklet focuses on a specific farm or nonfarm enterprise or technology that experience has shown can be integrated successfully into small farms or at a local community level. The booklets explore the potential benefits associated with new activities and technologies, as well as appropriateness and viability in differing circumstances.
Capability and Health Functioning in Ehtiopian Households
Language
English
Description
(Contributed by Ramzi Mabsout)
This paper operationalises concepts from the capability approach to shed light on the relationship between capability and well-being. The subjects are Ethiopian women in partnership.
Support Models for CSOs at Country Level - Tanzania Country Report
Language
English
Description
Authors: Bezerra, R.; Njoroge, K. ; Disch, A. Produced by: Scanteam (2007)
How can civil society and NGOs be supported by donors? This paper reviews experiences in Tanzania, looking at different models for supporting civil society and investigating possibilities for improving and increasing effectiveness of direct support to NGOs/CSOs. The authors consider how this can be done through country level support models and consider different examples of donor joint funding, which is helping other donors who might not have capacity to deliver their programmes to CSOs directly.
The document focuses specifically on the strategic policy framework of the Nordic+ donors (Canada, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the UK). The authors identify and analyse different support models, while reviewing possibilities for improving direct support to NGOs/CSOs through country level support models. The paper sheds light on constraints and possibilities of different types of support models, and explains how to increase outreach to a wider range of civil society organisations and reduce transaction costs. Conclusions and findings include:
the great majority of CSOs supported by the Nordic+ donors in Tanzania work in the area of advocacy or a mix of advocacy and service delivery
relations between Nordic+ donors and CSOs in Tanzania are overall good, but there is room for improving the dialogue in orer to establish a more partnership-based relationship
Nordic+ donors have put a lot of effort into developing joint models in Tanzania. Joint core support models have mostly developed once donors felt CSOs both had clear visions and programmes they wanted to carry out, and the capacities to implement them
CSOs could improve their networking to enable them to move the dialogue with donors forward as more coherent partners instead of relations between individual recipients and funders
donors could also consider increasing their interactions with civil society organisations and thus support the efforts of existing networks.
Food composition and dietary assessment software and related products
Language
English
Description
International Network of Food Data Systems (INFOODS) website, FAO.
About the "Compilation tool version 1.0":
This tool has been developed by FAO/INFOODS and is mainly intended for those who have no food composition database management system but would like to compile their data electronically in a somehow standardized form. Even though Excel is far from being perfect it was decided to use this programme because most people know how to use it.
The component names are displayed in INFOODS tagnames (seehttp://www.fao.org/infoods/tagnames_en.stm) and the fields of the value, reference, sampling and method documentation are based on the interchange report of 2004 (seeftp://ftp.fao.org/es/esn/infoods/interchange.pdf). The documentation of values, references, sampling and methods is possible but very tedious.
Users are invited to change the nutrient retention factors according to their needs and to add more factors if they need them. However, care should be taken when changing factors or adding lines in the worksheets that the formulas still point to the right cells and that nutrient values of already calculated recipes might change. Any component can be added or deleted but care has to be taken that this process is done in the same way in all worksheets to avoid errors in the formulas (check that they point still to the right cells) and errors when copying values (could be copied into the wrong columns).
For the moment, there is no manual available. We could consider developing one if the demand arises.
Please send your comments about the usage of this tool and suggestions for improvements to Ruth Charrondiere: ruth.charrondiere@fao.org
Cadre intégré de classification de la sécurité alimentaire: Manuel technique, Version 1.1. FAO, Rome
Language
French
Description
Manuel technique mise à jour du cadre intégré de classification de la sécurité alimentaire (IPC). Le cadre intégré de classification de la sécurité alimentaire s’agit d’une échelle standardisée qui regroupe les informations relatives à la sécurité alimentaire, à la nutrition et aux moyens d’existence pour formuler une analyse précise sur la nature et la sévérité d’une crise, ainsi que les conséquences en termes de stratégies d’intervention.
Updated manual providing technical guidance on the use of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The IPC is a standardised scale that integrates food security, nutrition and livelihood information into a clear statement about the nature and severity of a crisis and gives implications for strategic response.
Thought About Food? A Workbook on Food Security & Influencing Policy
Language
English
Description
This workbook aims to provide people with tools and the power to raise awareness about food security and to think about actions to influence both policies and systems to address food security issues more effectively.
Designing methods for the monitoring and evaluation of household food security rural development projects
Language
English
Description
This guide emphasizes the design of quantitative impact evaluation exercises for Household Food Security (HFS) and nutrition, and provides development practitioners with the basic principles on why, when and how to choose and implement a particular evaluation system.
Constructing samples for characterizing household food security and for monitoring and evaluating food security interventions: theoretical concerns and practical guidelines
Language
English
Description
Reliable information on household food security is a prerequisite for the accurate and effective design, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects. In part due to the commitment, on the part of many development agencies, to work in marginalized areas, this information is often either not available or grossly out-of-date. But collecting data is not a costless exercise. This guide discusses how random sampling techniques—methods that use some mechanism involving chance to determine which farms, households, or individuals are to be studied—can economize on the costs of gathering information while increasing the likelihood that it will be both accurate and available in a timely fashion.
This paper deals with the basic concepts of food security and household vulnerability, describing the development of the food security concept since the beginnings. It also shows the actual world trend of food security situation.
Seguridad Alimentaria: medición y métodos (Part 1)
Language
Spanish
Description
This paper aims to put together all the available bibliography on food security generated by FAO, WFP, WHO as well as the academic world and develop the different aspects of food security and its relationship with the economic policy.
There are training resources based on lessons from the EC-FAO Programme’s distance learning component, such as:
- Nutritional Status Assessment and Analysis
- Livelihoods Assessment and Analysis
- Baseline Food Security Assessments
- Availability Assessment and Analysis
- Food Security Concepts and Frameworks
Seguridad Alimentaria y nutricional. Conceptos Básicos
Language
English
Description
It is a guide developed for the "Programa Especial para la Seguridad Alimentaria" (PESA) in Central America.
After describing the four pillars of food security (availability, access, stability and utilization), it deals with the concepts of food right and food soveregnity and it gives some data on the Central America food situation.
A multi-stakeholder network in the area of ICT for development. Established in 1997 with a mission to share knowledge and build partnerships, GKP connects organisations across sectors and regions to promote knowledge and innovation in the use of ICT for development.
Food Security Indicators and Framework for Use in the Monitoring and Evaluation of Food Aid Programs
Language
English
Description
The purpose of this guide is to assist in the identification of food security indicators to be used in the monitoring and evaluation of food aid programs. Effectively integrating food security indicators into the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems of food-assisted programs will ensure more efficient management of these increasingly scarce development resources and improve their ultimate impact on the lives and well-being of program beneficiaries.
Rapid Appraisal Methods for the Assessment, Design, and Evaluation of Food Security Programs. Technical Guide
Language
English
Description
Project managers in charge of implementing activities that address food security problems need tools to (1) identify the populations that are food insecure, (2) design interventions that address the causes of food insecurity, and (3) evaluate the impact of their interventions on the food security status of project beneficiaries. This guide illustrates how Rapid Appraisal (RA) methods can provide useful insights to the research and design of food security interventions, as well as their limitations.
Measuring Nutritional Dimensions of Household Food Security. Technical Guide
Language
English
Description
This guide outlines methodologies that will assist practitioners to improve the nutrition impact of development activities. The methodologies described are jointly referred to as nutritional assessment. The guide begins by explaining what is meant by nutritional assessment, and how it can reinforce linkages between nutrition and agricultural development, then considers how nutritional assessment can be used in rural development projects for beneficiary targeting and project formulation, as well as for practical project monitoring and evaluation.
Nutrition plays a critical role in comprehensive care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. Nutritional interventions can help manage symptoms, promote response to medical treatment, slow progression of the disease, and increase the quality of life by improving daily functioning.
This manualis intended to complement materials used in institutions of higher learning to improve the quality of training in nutrition and HIV/AIDS. The manual provides a comprehensive source of information on nutrition and HIV/AIDS, and provides instructors with technical content, presentations, practical exercises, and handout materials that can be used for planning and facilitating courses and lectures.
ACHIEVING FOOD AND NUTRITION SECURITY. Actions to Meet the Global Challenge
Language
English
Description
After an overview of the complexity of Food and Nutrition Security and its state of the art, this course describes first the indicators that can be used to analyse the Food and nutrition situation looking at the various dimensions (availability, access, use/utilisation and stability) from the macro meso and micro (household) level perspective and describes instruments and methods to get the necessary information, including the various Early Warning and Mapping Systems.
It shows how to plan and design the process of assessment and analysis of the Food and Nutrition situation and describes interventions to improve the food and Nutrition situation at macro meso and micro level. It finally presents examples of international programmes and approaches, tools and gives hints on how to develop and plan intervention strategies.
Implications of Economic Policy for Food Security: A Training Manual
Language
English
Description
This manual has been produced as part of FAO's overall commitment to providing training materials in food and agricultural policy analysis. In particular, FAO sees the need to improve the capabilities of agencies dealing in both food and agricultural policy and macro-economic policy in understanding and allowing for the cross relationships of macro- and sectoral policies and to assess their impact on the rural population.
The manual falls into two main sections. The first sets out the basic framework within which food security is addressed, while the second deals explicitly with the impact of economic policy on food security.
Formation de partenaire en Sécurité Alimentaire (Food Security training materials, only in French)
Language
French
Description
Training materials on food security, livelihoods and nutrition developed by Oxfam GB. Available in French.
They offer an overview of conceptual frameworks, on PRA methods, and then move into the project cycle management and use of this information.
The FAO Policy Learning Programme addresses high-level policy makers and aims at strengthening their capacity in formulating and implementing policies and strategies for agriculture and rural development. It brings together FAO’s knowledge and thinking on policies and strategies for agriculture and rural development in the context of MDGs and produces materials capturing FAO knowledge in order to make them available to a broad public through the Web.
Users can now find background documents, presentations, case studies and policy tools, all of which are organised according to the following structure :
· Module 1 Policy Framework - focuses on the critical constituents of a national policy framework and the relationships between the agricultural sector, the rural space and the national macroeconomic framework;
· Module 2 Specific Policy Issues - concentrates on tools, techniques, and conceptual models that are fundamental to policy analysis, design, and evaluation in the context of pressures for change in, food quality and safety regulations, natural resource management, and agrifood system organisation and performance.
· Module 3 Investment and Resource Mobilization - considers how to mobilise and use public and private resources and investment for agriculture and rural development.
· Module 4 Policy and Strategy Formulation - concentrates on the main characteristics and the management of policy processes.
This pdf file provides users with a Programme overview, where you will find quick links to the documents.
The material is available to all EASYPol users at www.fao.org/easypol in English, and very shortly French and Spanish versions will also be published.
Community-based forest enterprise development for improved livelihoods and biodiversity conservation: a case study from Bwindi World Heritage site, Uganda
Language
English
Description
Current trends in economic liberalization and governmental decentralization provide opportunities for local communities to develop small-scale forest product enterprises that improve their livelihoods and provide incentives to better manage and protect resources. This paper examines the experience of the Mgahinga Bwindi Forest Conservation Trust (MBIFCT), a local non-governmental organization in Southwest Uganda, in assisting poor communities in parishes adjacent to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with the identification and development of enterprises that improve their livelihoods while protecting natural resources. The paper highlights the importance of the communities' involvement in the identification and planning of such enterprises, and of supportive policies and strategic business alliances for the development of economically viable and ecologically sound enterprises.
Simpler Forest Management Plans for Participatory Forestry
Language
English
Description
This working paper aims to present and stimulate thinking about some of the constraints imposed when conventional forest management plans (FMPs) are used for participatory forestry. It describes recent approaches to address these constraints, mostly based on a study of forest management plans in 22 countries. The study also focused on some promising experiences in simplifying forest management plans for livelihood-oriented and enterprise-oriented forestry.
Farmer Field School in Community Forest Management in Nepal: an approach to group learning and experimentation by Forest User Groups
Language
English
Description
This paper examines how FFMS is helpful to empower FUGs in managing their community
forests in technical aspects and also will examine constraints and opportunities in the
implementation of the approach in sustainable forest management. This paper also aims to
identify elements and current practices of community forestry, and the potential added value
of FFMS to community forestry. It also shares the experiences and lessons learnt from
Nepal on FFMS and the knowledge generated from it for the scaling up of the program
widely.
Linking human nutrition and fisheries: Incorporating micronutrient-dense, small indigenous fish species in carp polyculture production in Bangladesh
Language
English
Description
Fish and fisheries are important for the
livelihoods, food, and income of the rural population in Bangladesh. The objective of the research and capacity-building activities described in this paper is to increase the production, accessibility, and intake of
nutrient-dense small indigenous fish species, in particular mola (Amblypharyngodon mola), in order to combat micronutrient deficiencies.
Producer Company (PC)/Institutional PC of, for and by the Farmers
Language
English
Description
Farming in India/Karnataka as in several countries, is at cross roads due to a number of factors. “Producer companies (PC)” permit existing societies, co-operatives, NGOs, Trusts, Private Limited Companies, etc to convert to Producer Companies or set up Greenfield PCs.
The PC emphasized here is the PC of the farmers, by the farmers and for the farmers,
facilitated financially by the Government, but managed by professionals.
Nutrition education in primary schools. A planning guide for curriculum development
Language
English
Description
A manual by AGN, FAO, 2006.
Abstract: Healthy, well-nourished and educated people are a country's most precious asset for achieving economic and social development. Access to sufficient, safe and nutritious foods is essential to reaching this goal. However, this by itself is not enough. People also need to understand what constitutes an appropriate diet for health, and they need to have the skill and motivation to make proper food choices and practise healthy eating habits. Helping people in doing so is the role of nutrition education.
Food & nutrition. A handbook for Namibian Volunteer leaders
Language
English
Description
A handbook by AGN, FAO, 2004. Abstract : This Handbook has been developed as a part of the Rural Youth Development Programme of the Namibian Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Employment Creation.1 This book is to enable rural youth leaders and Extension Technicians to help other young people in their villages to understand the importance of nutrition and of selecting foods which are best for health.
A manual by AGN, FAO, 2004.
Abstract: Levels of chronic malnutrition among small and school-going children continue to be persistently high. However, good nutrition is an essential prerequisite for effective learning. In recognition of this problem and in response to the Ministry’s National Education Policy (Educating Our Future, May 1996) on improvement of the nutritional status of school-going children, the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, developed action-oriented nutrition education materials. These materials focus on influencing the nutrition and health-related attitude, values, behaviour and practice of school children within the school premises as well as at community level.
Improving the quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables: a practical approach
Language
English
Description
A trainer manual by AGN, FAO, 2004. Available in English, French and Spanish. Abstract : Improving the quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables: a practical approach Manual for trainers The manual to «train the trainers» provides guidelines and training materials to conduct practical and participative workshops, with an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. It focuses on the practical application of technical concepts, supporting the implementation of quality assurance and safety initiatives for fresh fruits and vegetables, from private and public institutions at the local, regional, national and governmental levels in each country. The contents were validated by different subregional workshops held in several Latin American countries with the final text incorporating the recommendations and contributions resulting from these workshops.
Improving nutrition through home gardening. A training package for prepairing field workers in Southest Asia
Language
English
Description
FAO, 1995. Available in English and Spanish.
This training package, Improving nutrition through home gardening, is for the instruction of agricultural extension agents and other field workers in Southeast Asia. It aims to strengthen their ability to promote home gardening for better family and community nutrition. The package was prepared by the Food and Nutrition Division of FAO on the basis of training materials developed for the FAO/UNDP Technical Support to the WFP Transmigration Development Project (INS/89/004) in Indonesia.
Regional Integration and Food Security in Developing Countries
Language
English
Description
By Alan Matthews, FAO, 2003. Available in English and Spanish.
The aim of this paper is to provide background information on motivations, processes and constraints to regional integration and cooperation. It presents the main issues in identifying the potential role which regional trade arrangements can play in promoting food security among their members. It looks at the interface between regionalism and food security, namely the consequences of regional integration (and, especially, regional trade integration) for food security and the opportunities which exist to address food security issues within a regional framework. Finally, the paper intends to serve as a guide for all those involved in the preparation of food security strategies in the context of regional integration arrangements.
Implications of Economic Policy for Food Security : A Training Manual
Language
English
Description
By Thomson & Metz, FAO, 1998. This manual has been produced as part of FAO's overall commitment to providing training materials in food and agricultural policy analysis. In particular, FAO sees the need to improve the capabilities of agencies dealing in both food and agricultural policy and macro-economic policy in understanding and allowing for the cross relationships of macro- and sectoral policies and to assess their impact on the rural population.
The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century
Language
English
Description
Between mid-2007 and mid-2008, the issue of rising global food prices moved to the very forefront of the international political agenda. Tens of millions more people were pushed into hunger and poverty as a result; civil unrest flared up in locations all over the world; over thirty countries introduced export restrictions on food, even as many importing countries attempted to tackle the issue through subsidies and price controls.
This report - a longer follow-up to an April 2008 Chatham House Briefing Paper entitled Rising Food Prices: Drivers and Implications for Development - sets out to look beyond the immediate causes and impacts of the global food price crisis of recent months, towards the medium and longer term.
The Challenges of China’s Encounter with Factory Farming
Language
English
Description
Authors: Mia MacDonald and Sangamithra Iyer.
Produced by Brighter Green, 2009.
China has surpassed the United States as the world’s top pork producer, raising and slaughtering 700 million pigs a year. For decades, researchers and policymakers have raised a worrying question about the world's most populous country: "Who will feed China?" Today, while concern about reaching 1.3 billion mouths remains paramount, the phrasing has changed slightly: "Who will feed China's pigs?"
China's phenomenal economic growth has lifted millions of Chinese out of the hardscrabble rural poverty that was a central feature of the Mao Zedong era. The country is now not only "factory to the world," but also the world's largest producer and consumer of agricultural products-particularly meat.
Transitioning to Climate Resilient Development - Perspectives from Communities in Peru
Language
English
Description
Published by The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/THE WORLD BANK, 2008
While the scientific capacity to forecast El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) extremes, this papers questions the extent to which these advances have benefited vulnerable communities by increasing their resilience to impeding El Niño events. The study captures the perspectives and opinions of communities in Peru concerning their vulnerability to climatic hazards, and the role of weather and climate information in relation to other non-formal information sources for anticipating and adapting to climatic extremes.
Discussions with the communities show widespread perception of change some of which could be confirmed in data records. There often is however, limited knowledge of the mechanisms that increase vulnerabilities to a particular hazards and how changes outside their immediate environment could affect a community.
The authors note a range of recommendations that can be undertaken at the national, department, and community level to further reduce vulnerabilities from climate change impacts in Peru.
Efforts to improve use of climate information should focus on the understanding of climate risks in their spatial dimension at the community level and providing climate information that is more directly linked to the local production systems.
Integration of climate information into the decision-making processes at the community level could include for example trust-building exercises between information providers and communities through local meetings.
The extent to which changes are occurring at temporal scales that are directly relevant to the livelihoods of the communities –such as changes in the characteristics of the rainy season should be investigated.
Government authorities should make climate data more easily accessible to stimulate research activities on Peru, given its high vulnerability.
Research initiatives should focus on promoting climate resilient agricultural practices, pest management, and the protection of livestock to improve assets of the households. This should be connected with exploring market opportunities, such as identifying niche markets for native crops well-suited for the local climatic conditions.
Potential revenue streams to communities created through the emergence of the carbon market for afforestation activities and any other incentive systems for reducing local environmental degradation should be explored.
External assistance to communities after a specific disaster should focus on solutions that also reduce vulnerabilities to future hazard exposure. This could include for example building safety standards.
Community based adaptation in action: A case study from Bangladesh
Language
English
Description
By Stephan Baas and Selvaraju Ramasamy, Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome and the Department of Agricultural Extension, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2008.
Abstract:
Bangladesh, due to its geo-physical position and socio-economic context, is highly prone to regular natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. In 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated a project at the request of the Bangladesh government that was designed to improve the adaptive capacities of rural populations and their resilience to drought and other climate change impacts. It also aimed to inform service providers and policy-makers of the learning and findings, in order to improve support to future adaptation processes. The project is implemented under the Comprehensive Disaster Risk Management Programme (CDMP), by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), and in collaboration with the Departments of Fisheries, Livestock and Forestry and national research institutes such as Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). (Community based actions started with: the characterization of livelihood systems; profiling of vulnerable groups; assessment of past and current climate impacts; understanding of local perceptions of climate impacts, local coping capacities and existing adaptation strategies. Based on those findings the project promotes institutional and technical capacity building within key agencies and among farmers associations/groups for demand responsive services needed by farmers to better adapt. The project has developed, and is constantly updating, a menu of diversified good practice adaptation options, which guides field testing of locally prioritized adaptation practices. Participatory extension is key and includes: demonstrations, orientation meetings, field days, farmer field schools, and community rallies. This report provides a summary of the working approach developed and tested to promote community-based adaptation within agriculture. It presents lessons learned from the implementation process as well as the details of good practice options for drought risk management in the context of climate change.
Authors: Mackinnon Webster, Justin Ginnetti, Peter Walker, Daniel Coppard, Randolph Kent
Published by Feinstein International Centre (Tufts University, USA), December 2008
Using existing international databases that track disaster occurrence and humanitarian costs, this research attempts to improve understanding of how climate change may affect international humanitarian spending. Employing four distinct methodological approaches, a range of potential impact scenarios is developed. The findings indicate that climate change will have a significant impact on humanitarian costs and the increase could range from a 32% increase, taking into account only changes in frequency of disasters, to upwards of a 1600% increase when other criteria, such as intensity, are also taken into account. Further, the report highlights that extreme weather events do not occur in isolation and the increasing interconnectedness of world economic and political systems has made disasters more complex and destructive. The report makes a number of recommendations, including the need for more rigorous and systematic collection of disaster-related data and more constructive interaction between the humanitarian and climate change communities on future research, planning, and action.
The Environment's Role In Averting Future Food Crises - A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment
Language
English
Description
By Nellemann, C., MacDevette, M., Manders, T., Eickhout, B., Svihus, B., Prins, A. G., Kaltenborn, B. P. (Eds). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), February 2009.
In 2008 food prices surged plunging millions back into hunger and triggering riots from Egypt to Haiti and Cameroon to Bangladesh. Whereas fuel prices, which also surged, have fallen back sharply food prices remain problematic with wheat, corn and soya still higher than they were 12-18 months ago.
In order to understand the factors underpinning the food crisis and to assess trends, UNEP commissioned a Rapid Response team of internal and international experts. Their conclusions are presented in this report launched during UNEP’s 25th Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum. [...]
Some of cases were found while carrying out an assessment of the impact of Jatropha cultivation in some of the villages in Patnagarh block of Bolangir district of Orissa where there has been massive promotion of Jatropha by private companies. The assessment revealed that Jatropha cultivation, instead of being a lucrative venture as claimed by the proponents, has created threatening situation for the farmer.
This month’s edition of National Geographic has a feature article on “Soil“, which looks at the steady degradation of agricultural land and the problem this poses in world where the population is heading for 9+ billion people - effectively calling attention to the “peak dirt” problem.
Adoption of organic rice for sustainable development in Bangladesh
Language
English
Description
The present study has been undertaken to gain knowledge of the level of awareness by farmers and consumers regarding the status of organic rice, and knowledge of demand and marketing opportunities and limitations for organic rice in the country. The present study has highlighted the overall organic rice situation in Bangladesh, which is not yet well documented. The results also demonstrate that farmers and consumers are aware of the hazards of chemical compounds but have little knowledge about organic rice. The present study may open a new window for organic rice research and marketing (both local and export) for all stakeholders (including planners) and could succeed in the adoption of organic rice in Bangladesh.
Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition
Language
English
Description
This paper, prepared for the High Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenge of Climate Change and Bioenergy (Rome, 3-5 June 2008), explores the implications of climate change and rising bioenergy demand for nutrition. It examines the direct nutrition effects of rising bioenergy demand, as well as its contribution to rising food prices.
DFID Summary on "Climate change: enhancing adaptive capacity"
Language
English
Description
Department For International Development (DFID) Summary - Climate change threatens the already fragile livelihoods of many poor people. Helping poor people to strengthen their livelihoods, through research on strategies, institutions and technologies, improves their capacity to adapt...
The performance of crops, wild plants, livestock and aquatic resources under stress depends both on their inherent genetic capacity and on the whole agroecosystems in which they are managed. For that reason, any serious effort to increase the resilience of developing country agriculture in the face of climate change must involve the adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties and animal breeds as well as more prudent management of crops, animals and the natural resources that sustain their production while providing other vital services for people and the environment.
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Food and Agricultural Sector - FAO Technical Background Document - March 2008
Language
English
Description
Many countries worldwide are facing food crises due to conflict and disasters, while food security is being adversely affected by unprecedented price hikes for basic food, driven by historically low food stocks, high oil prices and growing demand for agro-fuels, and droughts and floods linked to climate change. High international cereal prices have already sparked food riots in several countries. In addition, rural people (who feed the cities) are now, for the first time, less numerous than city dwellers and developing countries are becoming major emitters of greenhouse gases. Many traditional equilibriums are changing, such as those between food crops and energy crops and cultivated lands and rangelands, as is the nature of conflicts in general. These changing equilibriums are, and will be, affected by changing climate, resulting in changed and additional vulnerability patterns...
Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition
Language
English
Description
Paper by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
In addition to climate change and rising bioenergy demand, the following factors will
constrain efforts to reduce malnutrition in the coming years:
• demographic forces;
• widespread land degradation and scarcity of fresh water resources, resulting from
both bad management practices, inappropriate land uses for a certain land class and
impacts from climate change and extreme climate variations;
• structural shifts in the food and agricultural system;
• transboundary movement of diseases;
• environmental and energy pressures.
To read the whole paper, please follow the link.
World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy
World Food Day 2008 provides an occasion to once again highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world. Most of them live in rural areas where their main source of income is the agricultural sector. Global warming and the biofuel boom are now threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come.
Please follow the link to view FAO's World Food Day page:
Food security and climate change: the answer is biodiversity
Language
English
Description
Climate change will profoundly affect agriculture and food security worldwide and will particularly impact smallholder farmers in poor countries. Based on a short review of recent scientific literature, this document argues that the most effective strategy to adapt agriculture to climate change is to increase biodiversity.
Key points include:
a mix of different crops and varieties in one field is a proven and highly reliable farming method to increase resilience to erratic weather changes, as well as reducing the probability of pests and diseases
one of the best proven ways to increase stress tolerance in single varieties are modern breeding technologies that do not entail genetic engineering, such as Marker Assisted Selection, which facilitates the selection of conventional crosses with traits associated with multiple genes
In contrast, the document argues that there is no evidence that genetically engineered (GE) p lants can ever play any role to increase food security in a changing climate. It stresses that GE plants:
will provide no security against extreme weather changes. In a best case scenario, they may be resistant to a single stress, such as heat or drought, but not to the expected rapid and radical weather changes
will lack any sophisticated regulation of the inserted gene and thus cannot respond to changing challenges
because of their higher price, will most likely be planted in monocultures, which have the highest risk of failing in changeable and extreme weather.
The authors emphasise that the same conclusion is reflected in the recent IAASTD report, which considered GE crops to be irrelevant to achieving the Millennium Development Goals and to eradicating hunger. They also note that, by reducing agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions and by using farming techniques that increase soil carbon, bio-diverse farming can also contribute to mitigating climate change.
The document concludes by recommending that policy makers follow the IAASTD's recommendations and invest more in agricultural R&D that is geared towards modern, effective, bio-diverse farming.
Edited by Edited by Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte, this book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity, and food security.
Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and various other international bodies. The final part discusses civil society responses to relevant changes and developments in these issues, how they affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures.
You can access the Spanish version here: http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-118094-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining
New FAO Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis"
Language
English
Description
The Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization has published the new Policy Brief "Hunger in the Face of Crisis".
The Global Economic Slowdown Underscores Urgency of Addressing Long-Term Challenges.
More than one billion people are undernourished worldwide. FAO estimates show a significant deterioration of an already disappointing trend witnessed over the past ten years. The large increase in the number of undernourished people in 2009 underlines the urgency of tackling the root causes of hunger swiftly and effectively.
The current global economic slowdown—following soaring food prices in 2006-2008—lies at the core of the sharp increase in world hunger. It has reduced incomes and employment opportunities of the poor and significantly lowered their access to food.
Protecting livelihoods and food security: animal welfare in disasters
Language
English
Description
Resource contributed by James Sawyer
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Disasters affecting livestock destroy livelihoods and put food security at risk.
In Myanmar, like many developing countries vulnerable to natural disaster, the majority of rural incomes depend on healthy livestock.
When Cyclone Nargis hit in May 2008, over 50 per cent of the country’s livestock was killed. In the Ayeyarwady Delta, almost half the draught animals and a third of all pigs, goats, poultry and ducks were lost.
How Much Did Developing Country Domestic Staple Food Prices Increase During the World Food Crisis? How Much Have They Declined?
Language
English
Description
Using data from a new FAO price database, it was found found that domestic staple food prices in developing countries typically increased by 48 percent in real terms during the world food crisis. Given that most of the world’s poor are net food consumers, such large price increases almost certainly had severe impacts on the effective purchasing power of the poor, which in turn likely affected the number of meals eaten as well as the nutritional quality of food consumed. While domestic prices have declined from their peaks in most countries, the declines have been small thus far and real prices are typically 19 percent higher than they were two years earlier, even after accounting for inflation. Thus, many poor people are faced with higher food prices in the midst of a global economic slowdown.
Food Prices and Inflation in Developing Asia: Is Poverty Reduction Coming to an End?
Language
English
Description
Asian Development Bank special report, April 2008
This paper addresses the dimensions of the so-called 'food crisis' in developing Asia, including the relationship of rising international prices of staple foods to domestic food prices. It looks at the impact of dramatically higher prices on growth, inflation, fiscal balances, as well as poverty and inequality. It also reviews policy choices and responses to elicit a supply response and, in the longer run, realize sustainable productivity gains in agriculture that will mitigate the current crisis.
Produced by: Overseas Development Institute, London (2009)
The global financial crisis started in developed countries, but the global recession which has followed is having a wide-spread impact on developing countries. By the end of this year, developing countries are expected to lose incomes of at least US $750 billion. In sub-Saharan Africa, the figure is over US $50bn. ODI researchers, in coordination with other developed and developing country institutes are tracking the spread of the recession, monitoring and modelling its impacts and applying their different skills to the policy challenge of restoring growth and development in the poorest economies in the world. Twelve short articles outline a development charter for the G-20 to help poor countries tackle the effects of the global economic recession. The following are brief notes from each article:
low-income countries are being affected in different ways
poor people did not create this crisis, but their lives will be seriously affected by it,
the conclusion of the world trade organisation (WTO) Doha Round is desirable, but does not appear realistic in the current economic and political environment,
no country in the world has developed by closing its borders to new immigration,
there is consensus that most global finance flows need further regulation,
a 'rainbow' fiscal stimulus is needed to bringing together the best of market, environmental and interventionist approaches,
economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa is good for other regions,
experience from previous crises highlights the importance of addressing, explicitly, the immediate needs of the poor,
new mechanisms to address the crisis are not backed by additional money, leaving a key part of the architecture facing fundamental constraints,
it is important to remember the hard learned lessons of how to deliver aid effectively and what it can achieve, realistically, in a short timeframe,
the best way for developing countries to get themselves out of the current crisis is faster and sustained economic growth. The G-20 should be a help, not a hindrance, to this process,
the G-20 is the right short-term solution. The united nations (UN) is the right long-term solution.
Published by FAO, Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, 2008
When food prices are very high, governments and civil society organizations seek ways to prevent deterioration in the nutritional status of the population. Long experience on every continent shows there are many reasons that nutritional risks rise when food costs more and there is no single solution for coping with the situation - each country, community and household uses a combination of strategies to help people cope. Nutrition education and communication can help people maintain nutritional well-being even though purchasing food has become more difficult.
Actions are needed at many levels. At the national level, actions that have been carried out in many countries include tax reductions or subsidies for essential food products, school feeding and relief food, loan schemes, cash transfers and job programmes. While these strategies may be vitally needed, they are beyond the scope of this booklet. Here, the aim is to focus on the many actions households and communities can take to protect their health when they have the necessary awareness and knowledge. These actions may require innovative thinking and make new demands on individuals, households and communities to mobilize local resources. In addition to short-term safety net strategies, investment for medium and long-term development is needed to enable people to cope with the immediate situation and build sustainable solutions for the future.
This booklet provides examples and suggestions to stimulate ideas about how people’s own capacities can be strengthened so that they can feed themselves with dignity now and in the future. Very modest amounts of outside assistance may be required for some activities.
Information about how to implement nutrition education and communication strategies as well as new small-scale food production techniques can be found in other FAO publications.
More Growth or Fewer Collapses? A New Look at Long Run Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
Language
English
Description
Authors: Jorge Saba Arbache (World Bank) and John Page
Published in May 2008
Paper presented at the CSAE (Centre for the Study of African Economies) Conference 2009: Economic Development in Africa
Abstract
Low and highly volatile growth define Africa’s growth experience. But there is no evidence that growth volatility is associated to long term economic performance. This result may be misleading if it suggests that volatility is not important for economic and social progress. In this paper we use a variant of the method developed by Hausmann, Pritchett, and Rodrik (2005) to identify both growth acceleration and deceleration episodes in Africa between 1975 and 2005. We find that Africa has had numerous growth acceleration episodes in the last 30 years, but also nearly a comparable number of growth collapses, offsetting most of the benefits of growth. Had Africa avoided its growth collapses, it would have grown 1.7% a year instead of 0.7%, and its GDP per capita would have been more than 30% higher in 2005. We also find that growth accelerations and decelerations have an asymmetric impact on human development outcomes. Finally, our results suggest that it is easier to identify the likely institutional and policy origins of growth decelerations than of growth accelerations.
Swimming Against The Tide: How Developing Countries Are Coping With The Global Crisis
Language
English
Description
Background Paper prepared by World Bank Staff for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, Horsham, United Kingdom on March 13-14, 2009.
Key Messages
The sharp global contraction is affecting both advanced and developing countries. Global industrial production declined by 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, as highincome and developing country activity plunged by 23 and 15 percent, respectively. Particularly hard hit have been countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and producers of capital goods. Global GDP will decline this year for the first time since World War II, with growth at least 5 percentage points below potential. World trade is on track to register its largest decline in 80 years, with the sharpest losses in East Asia, reflecting a combination of falling volumes, price declines, and currency depreciation.
Financial conditions facing developing countries have deteriorated sharply. The World Bank estimates that developing countries face a financing gap of $270-$700 billion depending on the severity of the economic and financial crisis and the strength and timing of policy responses. Even at the lower end of this range, existing resources of international financial institutions would appear inadequate to meet financing needs this year. Should a more pessimistic outcome occur, unmet financing needs will be enormous.
The financial crisis will have long-term implications for developing countries. Sovereign debt issuance by high-income countries is set to increase dramatically, crowding out many developing country issuers (private and public). Many institutions that have provided financial intermediation for developing country clients have virtually disappeared. Developing countries are likely to face higher spreads, and lower capital flows than over the past 7-8 years, leading to weaker investment and slower growth in the future.
The challenge facing developing countries is how, with fewer resources, to pursue policies that can protect or expand critical expenditures, including on social safety nets, human development and critical infrastructure. This will be especially difficult for LICs: the slowdown in growth will likely deepen the degree of deprivation of the existing poor, since large numbers of people are clustered just above the poverty line and particularly vulnerable to economic volatility and temporary slowdowns. Many of the most affected LICs are heavily dependent on official concessional flows, which will be under pressure in donor countries facing their own fiscal challenges.
There is a therefore a strong need to expand assistance to LICs to protect critical expenditures and prevent an erosion of progress in reducing poverty. Attention must be directed to protecting the poor through targeted social spending, including expanded safety nets, and to maintaining and expanding the infrastructure assets that will be critical to restoring growth following the crisis. A concerted effort is also needed to support the private sector, especially SMEs, which are essential to a resumption of growth and job creation in developing countries. Creation of a global Vulnerability Fund, financed with a modest portion of advanced country stimulus packages, could go a long way to providing the resources necessary for these efforts.
Feeding Hunger & Insecurity: Field Analysis of Volatile Global Commodity Food Prices, Food Security, & Childhood Malnutrition
Language
English
Description
Published by ACF (Action Against Hunger) International Network, 2009
Rapid price increases in early 2008 led to riots in over 30 countries that sparked international calls for action and repositioned as global priorities the need to combat hunger and reinvigorate local agriculture. Action Against Hunger’s in-depth field study, Feeding Hunger & Insecurity, reminds us the crisis is far from over and that urgent funding is needed to translate global policy into effective, targeted responses addressing the needs of those most affected.'ACF International Network. [...]
The Growing Food Crisis: Demographic Perspectives and Conditioners
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English
Description
Published by the United Nations Population Fund, November 2008. Authors: George Martine, Jose Miguel Guzman and Daniel Schensul.
The volatility of food prices, and therefore of food security, has hit new highs. The overall result has been a dramatic surge in the number of hungry and under-nourished people throughout the world. Food prices rose rapidly in the first seven months of 2008, and increased by more than 80% over the last three years. Some 854 million people were already food insecure prior to these price increases; the current crisis may have added as many as 100 million more people to those facing food shortages. This situation risks undermining years of progress towards the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals in relation to poverty and hunger. Food protests and social unrest have predictably stirred around the world as the threat of starvation widens, and as hunger begins to strike social categories that had previously been immune to it.
While the crisis requires a quick humanitarian response, there is also need for a better understanding of the structural factors that have contributed to the current state of affairs in order to reduce its long term impacts. Demographic dynamics are a key but poorly-understood component of both structural factors and the effectiveness of the humanitarian response. This note aims to clarify the particular contribution of demographic processes in the current crisis and to identify promising avenues for intervention from the perspective of the population field. [...]
Nutrition: A Foundation For Development - Brief 9 Nutrition and Crises
Language
English
Description
Published by Standing Committee on Nutrition, Geneva 2002
Taken from "Nutrition: A Foundation For Development", a compilation of briefs on of the latest research findings in nutrition as they relate to other development sectors.
These briefs are designed to facilitate dialogue between nutrition and other development professionals. They are organized both as a complete set or as stand-alone briefs that make the case for integrating nutrition into the work of the development community.
The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries
Language
English
Description
Published by the International Monetary Fund, March 2009
Executive Summary
The global financial crisis is expected to have a major impact on low-income countries (LICs), especially in sub-Saharan Africa—and urgent action is required by LIC policymakers and the international community. The crisis is projected to increase the financing needs of LICs by at least US$25 billion in 2009, and much larger needs are possible. Twenty-six LICs appear particularly vulnerable to the unfolding crisis. Additional external assistance and foreign financing will be essential to mitigate the impact of the crisis on LICs. The Fund is deploying its own financing facilities for LICs, while making efforts to sustain and catalyze additional assistance from other institutions and donors. Fund financing to LICs has already increased significantly; new financing arrangements jumped from 5 in 2007 to 23 in 2008, representing an increase in total (GRA and PRGF/ESF) disbursements from US$0.6 billion to US$5.4 billion. The Fund has also launched a broad examination of its LIC facilities and financing framework to ensure its financial assistance meets the diverse needs of its low-income members. [...]
THE FOOD CRISIS AND LATIN AMERICA: Framing a New Policy Approach
Language
English
Description
Author: Shepard Daniel Published by The Oakland Institute, 2008
Rapidly increasing prices for staple foods from 2006 to 2008 culminated into a worldwide food crisis: inflation soared, food shortages were prevalent, and a lack of purchasing power among millions of the world's poor led to widespread hunger and desperation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that higher prices pushed another 40 million people into hunger in 2008, bringing the overall number of undernourished people in the world to 963 million (compared to 923 million in 2007). The Food Crisis and Latin America, a new policy brief from the Oakland Institute examines the impact of the 2008 food price crisis on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Skyrocketing prices increased the number of hungry and malnourished Latin Americans; boycotts and protests became rampant which caused widespread social unrest; and governments were tried to control food prices through emergency policy measures. While several factors are cited as causes of the dramatic rise in food prices, the new policy brief, The Food Crisis and Latin America, explains the lack of access to and affordability of food in Latin America a result of trade and agricultural policies implemented over the past three decades. Beginning in the 1980s, Latin America as a region enacted the most sweeping reforms to its trade policies in the world, producing dramatic increases in agricultural trade. The policy brief examines if these gains have done anything to shield the region from inflation in world commodity prices and if they have made Latin America more food secure.
The policy brief also finds that even though world commodity prices have somewhat stabilized and recent reports indicate a downward turn in commodity prices, store shelves across the region are still void of affordable food and the crisis warrants immediate measures to address the failures in the global food system.
Sphere Project Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response
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English
Description
Published by the Sphere Project, 2004 (revised edition)
In a remarkable international initiative aimed at improving the effectiveness and accountability of disaster response, the Sphere Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response sets out for the first time what people affected by disasters have a right to expect from humanitarian assistance. The aim of the Project is to improve the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters, and to enhance the accountability of the humanitarian system in disaster response.
This new edition of the handbook (2004) has been thoroughly revised and updated, taking into account recent developments in humanitarian practice in wat/san, food, shelter and health, together with feedback from practitioners in the field, research institutes and cross-cutting experts in protection, gender, children, older people, disabled people, HIV/AIDS and the environment. The revised handbook is the product of an extensive collaborative effort that reflects the collective will and shared experience of the humanitarian community, and its determination to improve on current knowledge in humanitarian assistance programmes.
Country responses to the food security crisis: Nature and preliminary implications of the policies pursued
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English
Description
By Mulat Demeke, Guendalina Pangrazio and Materne Maetz, Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN, 2009
This report, issued by the Agricultural Policy Support Service of FAO through the Initiative on Soaring Food Prices, intends to examine the short-term measures adopted by some 81 countries and is intended for policy makers and analysts.
Introduction:
Prices of staple foods, such as rice and vegetable oil, have doubled between January and May 2008. High food prices together with record petroleum and fertilizer prices have spurred inflation. Poorer households with a larger share of food in their total expenditures are suffering the most from high food prices, due to the erosion of purchasing power, which has a negative impact on food security, nutrition and access to school and health services. Higher prices also result in pressure on public expenditures which undermines funding of programmes aiming at alleviating poverty or meeting MDG targets. A series of immediate short-term policy measures have been implemented by countries in response to rising food prices.
These responses can be categorized in three groups:
The Environment's Role In Averting Future Food Crises - A UNEP Rapid Response Assessment
Language
English
Description
By Nellemann, C., MacDevette, M., Manders, T., Eickhout, B., Svihus, B., Prins, A. G., Kaltenborn, B. P. (Eds). United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), February 2009.
In 2008 food prices surged plunging millions back into hunger and triggering riots from Egypt to Haiti and Cameroon to Bangladesh. Whereas fuel prices, which also surged, have fallen back sharply food prices remain problematic with wheat, corn and soya still higher than they were 12-18 months ago.
In order to understand the factors underpinning the food crisis and to assess trends, UNEP commissioned a Rapid Response team of internal and international experts. Their conclusions are presented in this report launched during UNEP’s 25th Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum. [...]
Published by the International Monetary Fund, January 28. 2009
World growth is projected to fall to ½ percent in 2009, its lowest rate since World War II. Despite wide-ranging policy actions, financial strains remain acute, pulling down the real economy. A sustained economic recovery will not be possible until the financial sector’s functionality is restored and credit markets are unclogged. For this purpose, new policy initiatives are needed to produce credible loan loss recognition; sort financial companies according to their medium-run viability; and provide public support to viable institutions by injecting capital and carving out bad assets. Monetary and fiscal policies need to become even more supportive of aggregate demand and sustain this stance over the foreseeable future, while developing strategies to ensure long-term fiscal sustainability. Moreover, international cooperation will be critical in designing and implementing these policies.
Reforming the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy: health check, budget review, Doha Round
Language
English
Description
Should EU untargeted support to agriculture be abolished?
Authors: V. Zahrnt Publisher: European centre for international political economy, 2008
While the European Commission has tabled a proposal for reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) might necessitate further decisions on agricultural tariff cuts at any time. Related to that, this policy brief argues in favour of a fundamental reform of agricultural policy in the European Union (EU).
The paper notes that the divisions over the CAP appear to be bigger than ever. For example, while some stakeholders propose to abolish tariffs and other protectionist measures, some others deem the CAP so effective that the policy should be exported to developing countries. In this sense, one of the major critical issues in the CAP is the untargeted support to agriculture. While its forms were designed to stimulate production or support farmers' income, some economists consider that it does little to help farmers. The main criticism points on the untargeted agricultural support are that:
* it harms poor consumers who face higher food prices * it is distributed unfairly among farmers * it fails to stimulate rural development in disadvantaged regions or to motivate environmentally friendly farming practices * it is inadequate to support food security * it distorts the economy and reduces European welfare
Consequently, the paper states that these instruments do not reasonably serve any societal objective and should therefore be phased out.
On the other hand, the paper deals with the targeted policies, noticing that they are specific to the societal objective they serve. These policies can be particularly efficient to improve the environmental performance of agriculture. They can also keep public expenditures low by repaying farmers their individual costs of providing environmental services. However, to avoid trade distortion, the paper recommends better targeting of subsidies, which would allow the re-nationalisation of agricultural policies. The paper states that agricultural subsidies could be largely left to national authorities. It underlines that national authorities are in a better position to pursue local preferences, with locally responsive policies that are financially more responsible. This would mean the end of the bureaucratic and interventionist CAP as it has existed. And the new era will be one of decentralised agricultural policies that combine free and fair market competition with targeted measures. This combination promotes societal preferences not sufficiently compensated on the market.
The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) is an independent, learning and accountability initiative in the humanitarian sector. It was established in February 2005 in the wake of the December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis. TEC evaluations represent the most intensive study of a humanitarian response since the Rwanda multi-donor evaluation in the mid-1990s.
Fueling disaster: a community food security perspective on agrofuels
Language
English
Description
Authors: Steward, C.; Schiavoni, C.; Mann, P.
Produced by: Community Food Security Coalition (2007)
As the United States' appetite for agrofuels continues to grow and other countries join this trend, the ecological and social footprint of agrofuel consumption will be increasingly felt throughout the world. Recognising the growing interdependency of our food and energy systems, this report addresses the agrofuels debate from what, the authors assert, is a fresh perspective: that of communities who are trying to feed themselves.
It is argued that case studies, testimonials from farmer and indigenous movements, and reports from international and U.S. agencies demonstrate that the trend towards massive expansion of agrofuel production is the latest in a progression towards industrial agriculture and corporate consolidation of the world's land, food, and water resources. This report exposes the threat of industrial-scale agrofuel production to community food security through examination of the following areas:
food security and the right to food
agricultural workers' rights
community economic development
environment
The paper concludes that the principles of community food security imply that fuel is not a priority over food, and governments' actions to make it so undermine the world's hungry and struggling rural communities. Unless the agrofuels market builds new wealth that stays in rural economies, strengthens the social fabric of communities, and builds greater resilience for an uncertain future, communities will gain very little from agrofuel production.
A number of key actions for individuals that focus on food security and developing real sustainable energy solutions are suggested. Among these suggestions, targeted specifically at US citizens, are:
sign groups/organisations on to the moratorium on global agrofuels trade
resist the threat to the hungry from increasing food prices and dwindling food supplies by advocating for price stabilisat i on and national food reserves
support sustainable agricultural practices that reduce energy consumption. Promote more localised food systems to reduce food mileage
publicise the conflict of interest when agribusiness corporations gain greater control of the fuel industry, and vice versa
organise communities to resist corporate control of local food and energy resource and call for enforcement and strengthening of anti-trust and anti-monopoly measures
focus the energy debate on conservation and energy consumption rates. No alternative to fossil fuels will be able to meet current and future energy demands, the authors assert, if we do not decrease our energy usage altogether and put a major emphasis on conservation.
World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy
World Food Day 2008 provides an occasion to once again highlight the plight of 923 million undernourished people in the world. Most of them live in rural areas where their main source of income is the agricultural sector. Global warming and the biofuel boom are now threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come.
Please follow the link to view FAO's World Food Day page:
IFPRI Food Policy Report No. 19 GLOBAL FOOD CRISES - Monitoring and Assessing Impact to Inform Policy Responses
Language
English
Description
IFPRI has released Food Policy Report No. 19 GLOBAL FOOD CRISES - Monitoring and Assessing Impact to Inform Policy Responses by Todd Benson, Nicholas Minot, John Pender, Miguel Robles, Joachim von Braun.
A Call for a Strategic U.S. Approach to the Global Food Crisis
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English
Description
A Report of the CSIS (CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES) Task Force on the Global Food Crisis Core Findings and Recommendations (dated July 2008), calling for modernizing and doubling emergency assistance, making rural development and agricultural productivity foreign policy priorities, revising the U.S. approach to biofuels, urgently acting to conclude the Doha Development Round, and creating a strategic U.S. approach to global food security. Co-chairs Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Robert P. Casey (D-PA) charged the task force with identifying a food security plan that the Bush administration, the presidential campaigns, Congress, and the next administration could embrace.
Santé mentale et bien-être psychosocial des enfants en situation de pénurie alimentaire sévère
Language
French
Description
Ce document, développé à l'OMS, fournit des lignes directrices pour l'incorporation des principes de santé mentale et bien-être psychosocial dans les programmes de nutrition communautaire pour les jeunes enfants. L'accent est mis sur les programmes de nutrition en situation d'urgences.
The ENN was set up in 1996 by an international group of humanitarian agencies to accelerate learning and strengthen institutional memory in the emergency food and nutrition sector.
The ENNs flagship publication, Field Exchange, was developed as the main means of achieving this.
Authors: Collier,C.; Goderis,B. Produced by: World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) (2008)
This paper investigates the role of aid in mitigating the adverse effects of commodity export price shocks on growth in commodity-dependent countries. It also looks at whether aid has historically been targeted at shock-prone countries.
Some key findings include:
· large adverse commodity export price shocks reduce constant price GDP - the costs arise from realised shocks rather than the ex ante risk of shocks; a problem that continues to be faced by a relatively small group of low-income countries that have failed to diversify their exports
· negative shocks matter for short-term growth, while the ex ante risk of shocks does not seem to be as significant
· both the level of aid and the flexibility of the exchange rate substantially lower the adverse growth effect of shocks
· while the mitigating effect of aid is significant in both countries with pegs and countries with floats, the effect seems to be smaller for the latter, suggesting that aid and exchange rate flexibility are partly substitutes
· there is no evidence that aid has historically been targeted at shock-prone countries, but find no evidence that this is the case. This suggests that donors could increase aid effectiveness by redirecting aid towards countries with a high incidence of commodity export price shocks.
The authors conclude that the decline in constant price GDP compounds the decline in income that is an inevitable consequence of terms of trade deterioration, and so subjects already fragile societies to episodes of economic crisis. It is now known that even temporary periods of intensified poverty can have long-lasting effects. Shock-contingent aid does not appear to be effective but a sustained higher level of aid does significantly mitigate shocks. De facto exchange rate flexibility also mitigates shocks and is, to an extent, a substitute for aid. However, even with a flexible exchange rate, aid significantly reduces the cost of adverse shocks.
The UN Task Force on Food Price Crisis, that is meeting in Rome on June 3-5 during an FAO meeting (High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy) has not included the challenge of addressing the needs of young children in their global strategy for scaling up interventions meant to address rising food prices and decreased access to food.
Medecins Sans Frontieres has therefore sent a letter to all the DG's of the UN task force.
Vulnerability to Hunger: Improving Food Crisis Responses in Fragile States
Language
English
Description
The paper examines the imperative for improved classification and analysis of food crises in different fragile contexts. Recognizing the persistence and protracted nature of food crises, the paper questions how prevention and response mechanisms could be improved to help decisionmakers better address the underlying causes of vulnerability and hunger.
The rice crisis is now a major concern that is highlighted daily on the front pages of newspapers and on prime‐time television. This paper explains the reasons behind the rapid increase in rice prices and what must be done to achieve reliable, plentiful supplies of affordable rice.
Rising Food Prices - What Should Be Done? IFPRI Policy Brief, April 2008
Language
English
Description
IFPRI Policy Brief: Rising Food Prices - What Should Be Done? by Joachim von Braun
The sharp increase in food prices over the past couple of years has raised serious concerns about the food and nutrition situation of poor people in developing countries, about inflation, and—in some countries—about civil unrest. Real prices are still below their mid-1970s peak, but they have reached their highest point since that time. Both developing- and developed-country governments have roles to play in bringing prices under control and in helping poor people cope with higher food bills...
Please click on the link to read this IFPRI Policy Brief.
Summary document of the FAO e-mail conference: ''Coping with Water Scarcity in Developing Countries: What Role for Agricultural Biotechnologies?''
Language
English
Description
The summary document of the FAO e-mail conference entitled "Coping with water scarcity in developing countries: What role for agricultural biotechnologies?" has now been published. It provides a summary of the main issues discussed during this moderated e-mail conference, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from 5 March to 1 April 2007, based on the messages posted by the participants, 75% of which came from people in developing countries.
Discussion Proceedings: Indicators Bridging Food Security and Nutrition
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English
Description
Posted on behalf of FSN Forum Moderator.
Contributions from the discussion organized by the FAO’s Nutrition and Consumer protection Division. This discussion focused on the use of the FANTA Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and the Dietary Diversity Questionnaire and many participants shared their experiences and insights.
The different steps between improved food production/income and impact on household nutrition;
The constraints that can prevent positive impacts on nutrition from taking place;
The activities that can be implemented to enhance the positive impact of a given intervention on nutrition.
This graph was very useful in sensitizing agricultural staff on what is needed to positively impact on household food security and nutrition, and the need to have a broader livelihoods approach.
Finally, the graph helps identify what outcomes to monitor when running a food security project, if we wish to monitor its nutritional impact.
Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM): Food Security and Market Monitoring Report
Language
English
Description
WFP Food Security and Market Monitoring Report provides up-to-date information on access and availability of basic food commodities in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). This report examines food security and markets analysis determinants in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), addressing: (i) the market in terms of price fluctuations and differentials (ii) economic access to food by the poorest households and food availability in rural and urban areas; (iii) areas and populations most affected by food insecurity; and, (iv) recent food security studies.
October marks the beginning of the hunger season in most southern African countries when household food stocks are increasingly drawn down and levels of purchases are constrained by increasing food prices as market supplies become tighter and income earning opportunities are scarce. These conditions are now more pronounced in those parts of the region where food production was severely reduced due to poor rainfall performance.
Linking human nutrition and fisheries: Incorporating micronutrient-dense, small indigenous fish species in carp polyculture production in Bangladesh
Language
English
Description
Fish and fisheries are important for the
livelihoods, food, and income of the rural population in Bangladesh. The objective of the research and capacity-building activities described in this paper is to increase the production, accessibility, and intake of
nutrient-dense small indigenous fish species, in particular mola (Amblypharyngodon mola), in order to combat micronutrient deficiencies.
"Emergency Food Security’’ Assessment Handbook First Edition, WFP
Language
English
Description
This handbook is intended for use in any emergency situation or protracted humanitarian crisis, whether
due to a sudden natural disaster, drought, disease or economic collapse (a slow-onset crisis) or conflict, and
to address the needs of both resident and internally displaced persons. It is addressed to WFP programme
staff and VAM officers, but it is hoped that the handbook will also be useful for the governmental, UN and
NGO partners with whom WFP collaborates in emergency food security assessments (EFSAs) whenever
possible. Indeed, it is hoped that it will provide a basis for enhanced collaboration.
It aims to provide sufficient guidance for programme staff who have some experience and relevant training
to: (i) plan and organize an ‘initial investigation’ or a ‘rapid’ assessment, and (ii) draw up the terms of
reference for and commission an ‘in-depth’ assessment. The latter includes knowing when to ask for
technical support but not relying on such support for everything. Examples are provided in many sections to
help users understand what is intended and to enable them to benefit from 'lessons learned'.
This ‘provisional’ version will be further developed and improved during 2005/06 on the basis of field
testing and other work being undertaken within the framework of the ongoing Strengthening Emergency
Needs Assessment Capacity in WFP (SENAC) project. It is hoped that the next version of this handbook
will provide both enhanced guidance and additional practical examples and lessons.
Livelihood Characterisation of South Sudan: The use of physiographic and agro-climatic layers
Language
English
Description
Research paper, Odero, 2007.
Abstract: The longstanding conflict in South Sudan has led to a heavy reliance on a frag-mented knowledge base. Current reconstruction and recovery activities impose the urgent need of a unified and a systematic knowledge base to identify liveli-hood opportunities and constraints and development priorities. The increased availability of spatially-continuous datasets provides an opportunity to create a spatial database to meet this need. A considerable effort has been dedicated on developing livelihood zones since the 1950s but there are still gaps. In this paper we use ArcGIS to generate a dataset comprising 10 physiographic zones based on five raster datasets: agro-climatology (length of growing period), digital eleva-tion model, USGS land cover, NDVI and FAO Soils of the World. These new zones attempt to bridge the knowledge gap and improve our understanding of the spatial distribution of physiographic characteristics, which are key determinants of livelihoods. In addition, it provides a primary spatial database that can readily be combined with formal surveys to refine livelihoods, conduct vulnerability analysis and identify constraints and opportunities for development programmes. The pa-per concludes with a discussion of how the map could be used for both contin-gency and development planning and priority setting.
Addressing food security in fragile states – Case studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Sudan
Language
English
Description
ESA's working paper, 2007.
Drawing on case studies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia and Sudan, this paper focuses on policy, programming and institutional issues related to addressing food insecurity in protracted crises and fragile states, with a focus on areas afflicted by conflicts. The case studies illustrate how dysfunctional institutions are at the root of structural food insecurity and show how local people and institutions have been able, to a certain extent, to adapt and cope with the crises. However, the protracted nature of the crises has substantially eroded people’s assets and weakened the capacities of traditional safety net systems to provide protection. Against this background, mainstream humanitarian assistance – which has been the international community’s dominant response – has not been able to address the basic determinants of food security and in particular has not sufficiently supported the positive efforts of local institutions. The case studies illustrate some innovative approaches for addressing food insecurity during protracted crises. They show that while it remains indispensable to ensure neutrality for immediate responses that protect the most vulnerable, it is also crucial to take into account institutional and policy dynamics that support processes to rebuild resilience; create opportunities for strengthening the livelihoods of affected population at the very early stages of the crisis; and develop an adequate basket of interventions to address a variety of needs.
Conflicts, Rural Development and Food Security in West Africa
Language
English
Description
By Margarita Flores, FAO, 2004. This paper examines food security in the context of conflict in West Africa. The analysis developed in the paper recognises the importance of defining conflict type and the trends in conflict so that conflict and post-conflict policies may be implemented. The relationship between food security and conflict is analysed. Whilst conflict exacerbates food security, food insecurity can itself fuel conflict. Strategies designed to assist in post-war rehabilitation need to address key dimensions of food security: availability, access and stability. It is argued in this paper, that consideration of these three dimensions are necessary joint conditions in moving towards a reduction in the numbers of hungry. The cases of Sierra Leone and Liberia are examined to consider the nature of conflict and how food security is being addresses and the necessary policy implications after prolonged violent conflict. Ghana is examined as an analytical contrast to show that the absence of conflict is not a sufficient condition for growth and reduced hunger.
Armed Conflicts and Food Security Explaining Success in Reducing Under- Nourishment Numbers in Ghana
Language
English
Description
By Slobodanka B. Teodosijević, FAO, 2003.
Despite the end of the Cold War conflicts are still very frequent and most of them occur in developing countries. However, the nature of conflicts has changed and the proportion of civilian fatalities has increased markedly. The causes and consequences of conflicts are often a complex mix of inter-linked economic, environmental, political, cultural and religious factors. The human, social and economic costs of armed conflict are massive. Thousands of men, women and children die each year as a direct and indirect consequence of war. About 25 million people were displaced by the end of 2001. GDP per-capita is estimated to decline by about 2.2 % per year during conflict, with sectors which have high transaction costs hit more severely. Although the agricultural sector is typically less affected than industry per-capita agricultural production falls by about 1.5 % per year in periods of conflict. Food production is usually reduced, and in some cases collapses, leading to hunger and starvation and forcing large numbers of people to migrate. Food aid buffers food-intake levels to some extent but calorie availability per-capita-per-day does fall by an average of about 7 percent as a result of conflict. Food itself frequently becomes a weapon during conflict. The destruction of rural infrastructure, the loss of livestock, deforestation, the widespread use of land-mines as well as the population movements lead to long-term food security problems, particularly when these factors interact with natural disasters. Subsistence farming, crop diversification, divestment and migration are some of the survival strategies that people resort to. Agricultural sector recovery depends on successful demobilization of soldiers, land de-mining and the reconstruction of rural infrastructure, in particular roads and irrigation.
Nutrition and food security information systems in Crisis-Prone Countries
Language
English
Description
By Noreen Prendiville, FAO, 2003. Information on nutrition provides us with one of the few means of evaluating the overall well-being of the population and the extent to which they have been affected by a particular crisis. Using the broader definitions of food security, information on nutrition prompts an analysis that goes beyond the issue of food availability and makes close interaction among sectors inevitable and possible. Understanding information on nutrition supports us in evaluating our concept of ‘normal’ food security and allows us to monitor the impact of crises as well as the interventions designed to address them.
This paper examines the nutrition information systems in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Afghanistan as well as Kenya. Although the case studies emphasise the nutrition component of information systems, these are examined in the context of the food security and other sectoral information systems existing in each country. Recognising that the six countries studied are at various stages and levels of crisis, a number of similarities were seen and lessons drawn from their experiences.
The paper examines the extent to which existing nutrition information systems served the needs of humanitarian organisations during periods of crisis and suggests that in general the systems lack adequate coverage, are weakest in the areas of greatest need or simply collect information that is not adequate to inform decision making. The paper also examines the nature of investment in nutrition information systems during periods of crisis and discusses the failure in many instances to invest in longer term systems even in countries that are recognised to be prone to extremely serious periodic crises in food insecurity.
In an effort to support future discussion on more effective and efficient nutrition information systems, the issue of promoting intersectoral analysis is introduced. The efforts of some countries to achieve greater collaboration are described in a series of case studies. Finally, the paper emphasises the need to develop a better understanding on the information needs of a wide range of partners as the essential first stage in the development of stronger nutrition and food security information systems.
Complex emergencies, food security and the quest for appropriate institutional responses: the centrality of an analitic capacity
Language
English
Description
By Martin Doornbos, ISS, 2003.
With regard to the 'complex emergencies'–'food security' nexus, institutional policies have often advanced generalized responses such as offering food aid to meet the challenges concerned. Such responses however may actually result from poor analysis or active interests to pursue particular solutions irrespective of the specific problem or situation. This paper will argue that with respect to 'complex emergencies' and the kind of requirements they may pose to meet problems of food security, the scope for developing general policy responses remains very limited. Cumbersome as it may appear, it rather appears advisable to start from an opposite premise, namely that each complex emergency requires its own analysis and response. In terms of preparatory action, this implies a need for less attention in searching for ready-made solutions, and more towards enhancement of institutional capacities to diagnose emergency situations when they arise and as they develop. The discussion will be illustrated with some examples from the wider Horn region, and will tentatively explore some of the requirements in terms of institutional capacities for appropriate responsive analysis and action.
Rapid increases in food prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008 attracted high-level policy attention. During the course of 2008, the United Nations organized an inter-agency High-Level Taskforce on the Global Food Security Crisis and issued a Comprehensive Framework for Action. Over 40 heads of state and government attended a High-Level Conference on World Food Security, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and focused mainly on how to address the price increases. Donors pledged more than US $12 billion to assist low-income, food-importing countries in coping with the effects of soaring prices.
In this paper, we argue that the disproportionate attention that policy solutions to the food price crisis give to rural dwellers is likely misplaced. Although in developing countries rural poverty is often deeper and more widespread than urban poverty, rural dwellers are often net producers of food, frequently of the very staples whose prices are rising. We outline the pathways of impact of food price rises on urban dwellers; highlight the evidence so far on how those impacts have played out during this crisis; and describe current policy responses and suggest how to improve them to better protect the urban poor in the short- and longer-term
Edited by Edited by Geoff Tansey and Tasmin Rajotte, this book is the first wide-ranging guide to the key issues of intellectual property and ownership, genetics, biodiversity, and food security.
Proceeding from an introduction and overview of the issues, comprehensive chapters cover negotiations and instruments in the World Trade Organization, Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, and various other international bodies. The final part discusses civil society responses to relevant changes and developments in these issues, how they affect the direction of research and development, the nature of global negotiation processes and various alternative futures.
You can access the Spanish version here: http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-118094-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html#begining
Symposium on Nutrition Security for India Issues and Way Forward
Language
English
Description
Malnutrition in India is a silent emergency needing immediate attention if the country has to have inclusive and equitable growth and development.
After 60 years of independence more than 50% of Indians, particularly preschool children, and women suffer from protein calorie malnutrition (wasting and stunting) and/or micronutrient deficiencies- particularly anaemia ( the hidden hunger). 30% of infants are born with low birth weight, which can compromise their physical and mental development, and immunity. On the other side, there is growing incidence (10-20%) of obesity and associated cardiovascular diseases. India is world’s capital of diabetes. Children born with low birth weight have greater susceptibility to adult -onset, lifestyle- associated diseases. Thus malnutrition predisposes to both communicable and non-communicable diseases; adds to medical cost, and severely impairs productivity. The aetiology of malnutrition is complex. To ensure nutrition security there has to be Awareness at all levels (policy makers, planners, professionals and people in general), and Access for every individual, at Affordable cost to balanced diet, safe environment and drinking water (to ensure Absorption), and preventive and curative health care. Agriculture has to be nutrition oriented. Nutrition should be an important component of professional and school education. All government policies, missions and programmes concerned with food production and processing, food and nutrient supplementation, sanitation, drinking water and health should have nutrition improvement as an output criterion. Attention to female health and empowerment, appropriate infant and child feeding practices, and prevention of micronutrient deficiencies among others can yield results in short time. India needs a Nutrition Security Act to operationalise the currently sleeping Nutrition Security Mission and Nutrition Policy. Food Security Act will not eliminate malnutrition. There should be convergence between the programmes of different ministries and departments which can directly or indirectly influence nutrition security. Good governance and underpinning of science and technology will give maximum mileage out of the current efforts.
Nutrition should be the centrepiece of development and not a trickle down beneficiary of economic and industrial growth.
That strategy has failed.
The MDG Gap Task Force has assessed the global commitments contained in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) ratified by Governments at the various international events that followed the Millennium Summit.
The main message of the report is that while there has been progress on several counts, important gaps remain in delivering on the global commitments in the areas of aid, trade, debt relief, and access to new technologies and affordable essential medicines. The weakening of the world economy and the
steep rises in food and energy prices threaten to reverse some of the progress made in the various dimensions of human development.
This report presents the findings of a case study looking at irrigation system in Injil District, Herat Province, Afghanistan. The purpose of the study was to understand inequities and inequalities in irrigation distribution in a typical canal irrigation system.
Two canals of the Hari Rud river system flowing in Injil District, Herat Province, were selected as the focus of the study.
Access by smallholder farmers to transparent and competitive markets is a fundamental part
of any pro-poor growth strategy. This includes access to agricultural markets, but as the nonagricultural component of rural economies grows, it also includes markets for nonagricultural goods and for both farm and nonfarm wage work. Both public-sector investments and development projects need to address these problems, helping the rural poor gain access to high-value chains in markets for goods as well as for labor. As the economic and policy landscape changes, so do the ways in which development projects are conceptualized and implemented. The development project that sets up a farmers’ cooperative and leaves it to fend for itself in a complex marketplace is a thing of the past. The new rural reality requires a more comprehensive, market-oriented and context-specific approach in which rural stakeholders, private investors and donors actively participate. This paper reviews the relevant literature on these issues, proposes a framework for analysis and relates it to emerging evidence to tease out policy relevant conclusions.
Linking Smallholders to the New Agricultural Economy: An Evaluation of the Plataformas Program in Ecuador
Language
English
Description
This paper analyzes the impact of participation in multi-stakeholder platforms (Plataformas) aimed at linking smallholder potato farmers to the market in the mountain region of Ecuador. It describes and evaluates the Plataformas’ program to determine whether it has been successful in linking farmers to higher-value markets and the effects that such connections have brought, particularly with regard to farmers’ welfare and to the environment. The analysis is run comparing a set of different and carefully constructed control groups to beneficiaries and using various specifications. Results are strongly consistent across the different specifications and are sound across the counterfactuals, suggesting impacts are adequately identified. Findings suggest that the program was successful in improving the welfare of beneficiaries, while potential negative environmental impacts, particularly with relation to agrobiodiversity and use of agrochemicals seem not to be a concern. Mechanisms through which impacts have been achieved are analyzed. Little spillover effects are found.
How Much Did Developing Country Domestic Staple Food Prices Increase During the World Food Crisis? How Much Have They Declined?
Language
English
Description
Using data from a new FAO price database, it was found found that domestic staple food prices in developing countries typically increased by 48 percent in real terms during the world food crisis. Given that most of the world’s poor are net food consumers, such large price increases almost certainly had severe impacts on the effective purchasing power of the poor, which in turn likely affected the number of meals eaten as well as the nutritional quality of food consumed. While domestic prices have declined from their peaks in most countries, the declines have been small thus far and real prices are typically 19 percent higher than they were two years earlier, even after accounting for inflation. Thus, many poor people are faced with higher food prices in the midst of a global economic slowdown.
Conceptualizing two Development Approaches & Applicability in the Context of Reality
Language
English
Description
(Contributed by Rubayat Ahsan)
This paper attempts to reflect the understanding of the concept of Sustainable Livelihood
Approach (SLA) in the changing development dynamics. Critical understanding of
existing policies, principles, and models of different development agencies will be useful
in understand the existing concepts. In addition, examining linkages between SL and
right to food, food security, hunger, and food sovereignty could reveal missing elements
of the existing concept of SLA. Nonetheless, the power relationship between powerholders
and the powerless could be a potential area to look at loop holes for sustainability
of livelihoods approach.
In addition, the paper will find some common goodness and applicability from the Rights
Based Approach (RBA) and SLA. Alike, SLA, RBA is growingly introduced and
practiced by development institutions and agencies. Skeptics may argue RBA is a
“jargon” or a “buzz” word and its conceptua l area could be fuzzy and blur, and could be
replaced by some other fashionable jargons in the next couple of years. Therefore,
keeping cynical arguments in mind the paper could find some areas of application of
RBA to livelihood.
The objectives of this paper are i) to understand the existing frameworks on SLA, ii) to
develop a conceptual guideline for RBA, ii) to build understanding on essentials and
components of RBA, iii) to examine food security and sovereignty issues in the context
of neoliberal policies, and iv) to consider new age challenges. The paper would find some
missing elements of SLA that would need attention for an effective development
intervention. On the other hand, critical analysis from rights perspective could truly
address causes of deprivation and poverty.
The ‘Missing Dimensions’ of Poverty Data: A Proposal for Internationally-Comparable Indicators
Language
English
Description
(Contributed by Emma Samman)
The proposal seeks to promote collection and analysis of data on several ‘missing dimensions’ of poverty that appear important in the experiences of deprived people, but have been largely overlooked to date in large-scale quantitative work on poverty and human development.
Capability and Health Functioning in Ehtiopian Households
Language
English
Description
(Contributed by Ramzi Mabsout)
This paper operationalises concepts from the capability approach to shed light on the relationship between capability and well-being. The subjects are Ethiopian women in partnership.
Policy Brief: Towards a Policy that Pairs Microcredit and Micro-Insurance Tools
Language
English
Description
EASYPol Moduel 206:
Towards a Policy that Pairs Microcredit and Micro-Insurance Tools. What Impacts on the Fight Against Poverty and Risk Management? Lessons Learned from Experiences in India and Madagascar
Do Small Farmers Borrow Less when the Lending rate Increases? The Case of Rice Farming in the Philippines
Language
English
Description
By Roehlano Briones, Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 2007
'The new generation of credit programs directed at small borrowers emphasizes financial sustainability. Based on anecdotal information (especially from microfinance experiences), proponents of cost recovery claim that raising formal lending rates would have a minimal impact on borrowing. Rigorous evidence for this conjecture is however sparse. This study conducts an econometric test of this conjecture using data from a survey of small rice farmers from the Philippines. Alternative regression techniques tend to reject the conjecture; in particular, a regression that controls for selection effects shows a unitary elastic response of formal borrowing to the lending rate.'
Food Prices and Inflation in Developing Asia: Is Poverty Reduction Coming to an End?
Language
English
Description
Asian Development Bank special report, April 2008
This paper addresses the dimensions of the so-called 'food crisis' in developing Asia, including the relationship of rising international prices of staple foods to domestic food prices. It looks at the impact of dramatically higher prices on growth, inflation, fiscal balances, as well as poverty and inequality. It also reviews policy choices and responses to elicit a supply response and, in the longer run, realize sustainable productivity gains in agriculture that will mitigate the current crisis.
Even in hard times, it can make commercial sense for companies to develop markets that include poor people, and business models that address poverty.
Businesses that create decent jobs, access to markets or goods and services that benefit low-income groups in emerging economies help to build healthier, wealthier, and more highly skilled communities. Those communities will provide the customers, suppliers, and employees that companies need for sustainable growth.
Although urban agriculture plays an important role in economic development, activities that support urban agriculture are rarely included in programmes for urban development and poverty reduction. Likewise, not many attempts have been made so far to provide empirical evidence related to contribution of the urban agriculture to poverty reduction. In this context, new research at the Institute of Rural Development in Tanzania attempts to assess urban agriculture's contribution to poverty reduction, focusing particularly on the impact of vegetable production.
Approximately one third of the people of Tanzania are living in abject poverty: the urban poor constitute 13% of the poor. Urban poverty is the outcome of persistent economic uncertainty in urban areas, where households confront unemployment and declining purchasing power. To improve food security and diversify livelihood options, therefore, households have increasingly embarked on urban agriculture.
Using primary and secondary data, the study examines the effects of vegetable production on 55 households in Dar es Salaam's Kinondoni municipality.
Amongst others, it finds that:
farmers prefer to cultivate vegetables with high profitability and suitable to the local climate - this means favouring amaranthus species and pumpkins over tomatoes and okra
locally available agricultural inputs such as modern seeds, manure and manpower make it easier for farmers to take up vegetable production
vegetable production has had a significant positive influence on reducing income poverty, increasing food availability and increasing accessibility to educational and health services, among households in the study area
The study report concludes that urban horticulture is contributing to poverty reduction in urban Tanzania. In order to make horticulture activities sustainable, it calls on the relevant authorities, including those in Kinondoni, to improve land access for poor people by legally allocating specific areas in the municipality for horticulture. In addition, urban extension services need to be improved and the prices of agricultural inputs reduced.
New proposal to end Hunger and Malnutrition by José Luis Vivero and Andrew MacMillan, May 2009.
In this paper the authors are adjusting their proposal to fit with the recently initiated process of revamping the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
Please also check the "Proposal for an International Convention on Eradication of Hunger and Severe Malnutrition and a Simultaneous Campaign to Raise Commitment Levels"* by the same authors:
*Authors of this paper are Andrew MacMillan and Jose Luis Vivero. Though both are former FAO staff members, they have written this paper without any institutional engagement, and simply because they strongly believe that it is now entirely possible for the human race to make hunger and malnutrition a thing of the past. The paper will be periodically revised to respond to comments received from readers.
For Hunger-Proof Cities - Sustainable Urban Food Systems
Language
English
Description
Edited by Mustafa Koc, Rod MacRae, Luc J.A. Mougeot, and Jennifer Welsh, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) 1999.
The 20th century has witnessed a massive growth in urban populations. In 1990, one-third of the world's people lived in cities of one million or more. As well, hunger and malnutrition are on the increase worldwide, as the global food system fails to satisfy the growing demand of the urban consumer.
For Hunger-proof Cities is the first book to fully examine food security from an urban perspective. It examines existing local food systems and ways to improve the availability and accessibility of food for city dwellers. It looks at methods to improve community-supported agriculture and cooperation between urban and rural populations. It explores what existing marketing and distribution structures can do to improve accessibility and what the emerging forms of food-distribution systems are, and how they can contribute to alleviating hunger in the cities. Finally, the book discusses the underlying structures that create poverty and inequality and examines the role of emergency food systems, such as food banks.
For Hunger-proof Cities includes contributions from farmers and professors, young activists and experienced business leaders, students and policymakers, and community organizers and practitioners. It will interest academics and students in sociology, politics, economics, environmental studies, social work, nutrition and dietetics, urban planning, and health sciences; practitioners in dietetics, nutrition, public health, and social services; community organizations and NGOs working in food systems; and governmental and international organizations working in food policy and food security.
Participatory methods in the analysis of poverty: a critical review
Language
English
Description
QEH Working Paper, Oxford University Department of International Development, 2001.
'This paper reviews and analyses the literature on on participatory methods in poverty analysis. The popularity of participatory poverty assessments has greatly increased in the last decade, and a growing number of development agents is adopting some forms of participatory methodology. this spread however seems to be possible even without a shared understanding of what participation stands for. This paper starts by introducing the broad lines of the debate on participation, before focusing more specifically on participatory methods in poverty analysis'.
Impact of the Crisis on African Economies – Sustaining Growth and Poverty Reduction
Language
English
Description
A report from the Committee of African Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors established to monitor the crisis.
March 2009.
Although most African countries are not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, Africa had made steady progress over the last decade, building the foundations for higher growth and poverty reduction. This more optimistic picture is now being undermined by factors outside its control. While the initial effects of the financial crisis were slow to materialize in Africa, the impact is now becoming clear. It is sweeping away firms, mines, jobs, revenues, and livelihoods; it is in short a full blown development crisis. For the first time in a decade there will be zero growth per capita. This note provides evidence of the effects, and suggests action needed. For Africa no less than elsewhere time is of essence; decisive remedial action is needed now.
The growth outlook has deteriorated severely. Macroeconomic balances have worsened, with many countries facing widening current account and budget deficits. The crisis is reducing trade, the mainstay of recent strong growth in Africa. The expected shortfall in export revenues amounts to USD251 billion in 2009 and USD277 billion in 2010 for the continent as whole, with oil exporters suffering the largest losses. In addition to exports, capital inflows are also declining, including worker remittances and tourism receipts. The stocks of foreign reserves are running dangerously low, with some countries down to only a few weeks of import cover (for example, the DRC). This severely jeopardizes the capacity to import even basic commodities such as food, medical supplies, and agricultural inputs. The poor are the most affected. The private sector has been affected by shortage of liquidity in international markets, with adverse impact on trade and investment. International banks have failed to issue lines of credit or even confirm pre-committed ones. Projects have been delayed, and some have already been cancelled.
Study conducted for the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Society for International Development (SID), and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), 2005.
The wide range of poverty analysis conducted in Kenya in the last ten years is mainly based on the nationwide surveys conducted by the CBS within the framework of the welfare monitoring surveys (1992, 1994 and 1997). Further work was undertaken to'explain' poverty through participatory poverty assessments (1994, 1996 and 2001), and social policy studies conducted in selected districts by the GTZ-SPAS project. The government has in the recent past made attempts to improve on poverty analysis through the use of poverty maps so as to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of poverty eradication programs at the grassroots level.
The purpose of this study is to document how the poverty reports and maps have influenced national and sectoral policy decisions and allocations of resources in favor of the poor, and whether the poverty data is adequate or presented in formats useful to the design and programming of anti-poverty programs. The study is based on a small sample of institutions, Government departments and research institutes, and is therefore illustrative rather than comprehensive.
