Elsevier · Ashley, John: Food Security in the Developing World · Global and country food security case studies

Global and country food security case studies

Africa

Latin America & Caribbean (LAC)

Asia

Global

Complete set of Case Studies

Overall Abstract: There are more hungry people in the world today than the total population of the United States, Japan and the European Union combined. Less than 8 percent of the 795 million people affected by hunger are victims of food emergencies, the rest being ‘normally’ hungry, the great majority of whom living in the developing world. One in nine people in the world will go to sleep hungry tonight. Such is the context for this companion website to the book “Food Security in the Developing World” by John Ashley,

The ten case studies presented here illustrate, and give further voice to, one or more food security theme introduced in that book. All seek to better display the challenges and the potential solutions. The major regional blocks are represented – Africa (2 Case Studies), Latin America and the Caribbean (3 Case Studies), and Asia (2 Case Studies) – whilst 3 Case Studies are at the global level.

In Africa, the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia is discussed as an example of a combined development and humanitarian program, in which Cash for Work for those families who can provide labor enables changes to be made to the environment which lessen vulnerability to future food insecurity.

Secondly, Conservation Agriculture (minimum-tillage climate-smart) initiatives in southern Africa and beyond increase crop yield with reduced production costs, leading to both increased food availability and farm profitability. The level of farming is thereby raised from subsistence to emergent commercial, with a social engineering spin which empowers women whilst reducing the drudgery they hitherto endured.

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), the case study of Belize shows the interaction pattern between food and nutrition insecurity and poverty, and how all are impacted by the dominance of the export crop policy by government which has prioritised plantation crops, leading to national economic growth at the expense of local-level socio-economic development. Despite the negative development indicators, the government and its development partners are making good progress in addressing them.

The Ecuador study illustrates food security concerns of a Latin American country assailed by major natural disasters, and challenges regarding economic access to food by both its own population and the huge refugee population which the country hosts. This represents a treble threat to economic and social development, and national political stability.

Thirdly, about one third of the population living in Amazonia (the Amazon basin) is medium- to seriously-food insecure. Shortfall in food production within the region is not the main cause of the food insecurity, however. Indeed, most countries in the region are net exporters of food. Rather, the ubiquitous food insecurity here is a result of unequal economic access across the population, through poverty or inadequate distribution to remote areas, resulting in inability of many to purchase sufficient food for individual or family needs (and/or only the cheaper less nutritious foods). Large-scale agricultural ventures such as beef ranching, cropping, infrastructure development and natural resource extraction have also led to impoverishment and food insecurity for those driven from their traditional land/ forest. The food insecurity ‘hotspots’ in Amazonia are predominantly associated with urban environments, to which many of those internally-displaced people have fled.

In Asia, undernutrition is a major challenge in Lao PDR, the country having higher rates of stunting of children under-five than other countries in the region, and also in the same income group elsewhere in the world. The food-insecure populations in Lao PDR tend to be households engaged in shifting cultivation in upland areas on steep sloping fragile land, smallholders and unskilled laborers. To tackle the high levels of undernutrition, simultaneous action to improve behavioural change regarding dietary intake and hygiene/ sanitation is needed, along with improved access to markets and distribution/ safe storage of food in mountainous areas, and agricultural production systems which are less onerous for women.

As the second case study in Asia, the food security of the pastoral Kuchi of Afghanistan is examined, and how they manage to survive in a conflict-torn country.

Three case studies of a Global nature round off this companion website, starting with progress achieved towards attaining Millennium Development Goal 1, with especial emphasis on target 1c, which specifically commits to halve by 2015, the proportion of people who were suffering from hunger in 1990.

The second case study concerns the Food Price Crises of 2007-09 and 2011. The first crisis of 2008 provided a shock to the existing food system in the world. In developing countries, millions were tipped into deeper hunger and undernutrition, or food insecurity for the first time. The food prices rise was in response to events such as weather shocks, higher oil prices and increased demand for biofuels, exacerbated by the simultaneous 2008 global financial crisis.

Finally, urban slums are discussed, as epicenters of squalor, deprivation, food insecurity and undernutrition. UN-Habitat estimates that nearly 1 billion people currently live in slums in cities of the world, one sixth of humanity. By 2020, there will be 1.5 billion, and by 2030, about 3 billion people, some 40 per cent of the world’s estimated population then.