This new book by UNICEF details how the economic crisis continues to inflict devastating social consequences worldwide. In it, the authors note how access to public goods and services is also increasingly being challenged in the worldwide drive toward austerity measure in terms of reduced social spending. While the average gross domestic product of developing countries is contracting at nearly double the rate as their developed counterparts, combined price, income and service delivery shocks in these nations have potentially severe and irreversible consequences, especially for children, the authors argue. Among these include increased hunger and malnutrition, worsening health outcomes, lower school attendance, higher rates of child labour and domestic violence, rising vulnerability to future shocks and widespread social unrest. Even when faced with shrinking budgets, governments can expand their fiscal space without incurring immense cost, the authors argue. This can be achieved by: re-allocating public expenditures; increasing tax revenues; lobbying for increased aid and transfers; tapping into fiscal and foreign exchange reserves; borrowing and restructuring existing debt; and/or adopting a more accommodating macroeconomic framework.
Poverty and health
To keep its mostly maize-growing small farms productive through cycles of drought, Malawi spends 60% of its agricultural budget subsidizing fertilisers. But the findings of this 12-year study suggest farmers in Malawi and elsewhere could increase yields consistently without applying fertilisers, using instead 'fertiliser trees'. To thrive, maize requires phosphorus and nitrogen, large quantities of which have been depleted from African soils. The 'fertiliser tree' or gliricidia, a leguminous tree, has the ability to draw nitrogen from the air and fix it into soil, changing it into a form that plants can use. The trees also restore some amount of phosphorus to the soil, according to the study. In addition, the leaves shed by gliricidia return organic matter to the soil, increasing its structural stability, erosion resistance and capacity to store water. Three consecutive experiments, begun in 1991 in Malawi and Zambia, showed that when gliricidia was planted in rows between maize plants, maize yields were good year after year.
In this background paper, the author argues that the concept of the right to food is an invaluable in development policy as it recognises the links between food security, culture and resource rights, and as a legal principle, it requires a state to ensure that its people are free from hunger. In recent years, the right to food among Kenya’s indigenous peoples has been challenged by climate change and state interventions that have resulted in land loss and resettlement. Past policies aimed at pastoral development - such as the Maasai Group Ranches - have failed in light of their lack of economic, social and cultural viability. Ultimately, the effectiveness of right to food is not only predicated on claimants’ ability to make demands on the state, but also on the state’s compliance with international law, the author argues. In terms of policy, she points out that Kenya is bound by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1976, which stipulates the right to food, as well as its new constitution, signed in August 2010, which includes a provision related to the right to food. This provision is a significant step at the national level in regards to addressing food security. The next step ultimately involves the development of legislation, policies and programs to ensure the principles of the right to food are realised at the local level.
This Background Note is an initial exploration of the political economy of adopting public works programmes (PWPs) to promote social protection and employment in low-income countries and fragile states. The author found that one main reason why some external funders (donors) and governments favour public works programmes over other forms of social protection is their anticipated economic and political benefits, such as household, local and national economic development, increased productivity and graduation out of poverty, and the promotion of political stability. This preference for PWPs is not entirely evidence-based, however, as current data on the impacts of PWP implementation are inadequate. The popularity of PWPs may be linked in part to political and organisational interests as well as concerns about programme outcomes, and political dynamics can lead to inflated expectations about impact if programme design and institutional capacity are not given adequate attention. The author recommends political economy analysis as a useful tool for better understanding these issues. It can contribute to the development and design of interventions that are more likely to deliver significant welfare and employment benefits, while also being politically acceptable.
Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient to accelerate the reduction of hunger globally according to this report by the FAO, which presents new estimates of undernourishment based on a revised and improved methodology. The new estimates show that progress in reducing hunger during the past 20 years has been better than previously believed, and that, given renewed efforts, it may be possible to reach the Millennium Development Goal hunger target at the global level by 2015, namely eradicate extreme hunger. Policies and programmes that will ensure “nutrition-sensitive” growth include supporting increased dietary diversity, improving access to safe drinking water, sanitation and health services and educating consumers regarding adequate nutrition and child care practices. Economic growth takes time to reach the poor, and may not reach the poorest of the poor. Therefore, social protection is crucial for eliminating hunger as rapidly as possible. Finally, rapid progress in reducing hunger requires government action to provide key public goods and services within a governance system based on transparency, participation, accountability, rule of law and human rights.
Civil society is calling on the Tanzanian government and agri-business for a frank discussion on the objectives and benefits of the ongoing Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (Sagcot) project, which forms part of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra). Agra is considered by activists fighting poverty as a means to destroy small-scale farming in Africa and introduce large-scale, mechanised agriculture producing genetically modified crops, with disastrous results for food security on the continent. Critics argue that the government’s version of green revolution is fundamentally flawed, as it seeks the participation of large-scale, mostly foreign, investors, while conveniently ignoring the fact that agriculture in the country is overwhelmingly small-scale, sustaining about 80% of the population. The fate of these farmers is uncertain. As the implementation of most of these projects also seems complex, lacks transparency and raises accusations of land grabbing, civil society organisations are also calling on coordinators of the project to explain the nature of partnership with key international partners, some of whom have controversial commercial and agricultural undertakings. The ensuing discussions should address issues such as how local societies will be key players in farming, technological advancement and value addition.
In the last decade, enough agricultural land has been sold off to grow food for a billion people, which is equivalent to the number of people who go hungry in the world each night, according to Oxfam. Over 60% of investments in agricultural land by foreign investors between 2000 and 2010 were in developing countries with serious hunger problems. However, two-thirds of those investors plan to export everything they produce on that land. While Oxfam supports greater investment in agriculture and to small-scale producers, it argues that the unprecedented rush for land has not been adequately regulated or policed to prevent land grabs. This means that poor people continue to be evicted, often violently, without consultation or compensation. Many lose their homes and are left destitute, without access to the land they rely on. Oxfam calls on the World Bank to temporarily freeze investments involving large-scale land deals so it can review its advice to developing countries, help set standards for investors, and introduce more robust policies to stop land grabs.
Food security in Central Africa has been worsening over the last two decades. To address this challenge, Central African states have embarked on a process to develop a common agricultural policy and to put the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) into practice. Farmers’ organisations from all member states are now shaping up to influence these policy-making processes at national and regional level in the coming months. The main challenge for them is to identify proposals that respond to the needs and priorities of all the farmers they represent, and to ensure that policy makers will take them into account during negotiations. In doing so, they could learn from their counterparts in West Africa, argues the writer of this blog, the Deputy Programme Manager for Food Security at ECDPM. West African farmers managed to play an important role in the formulation of the region’s common agricultural policy through their regional farmers’ network ROPPA. Key to ROPPA’s success was its participation in decision-making organs and meetings, but more so, its preparations for these events, which included consultations of ROPPA’s members at regional, national and local levels, analytical work to check and back their arguments, and a continuous search for allies among national and regional authorities and non-state actors.
During the recent years of economic decline in Zimbabwe, many of the formal processes for land transfer have been weakened or even abandoned, local government has faced a rolling crisis of sustainability and the collapse of the national currency has ascribed a greater value to urban land as a commodity, according to this report. At the same time, there are signs now emerging of community-driven innovation and participation in urban management. The need to revive and renew human resources within local government has been widely supported, while UN-Habitat has recommended that the Town and Country Planning Acts should be reviewed, and various external funders are considering future assistance to the reform of legal and policy frameworks for urban development. There is thus a strong probability that fundamental changes to the systems and structures of urban land governance in Zimbabwe will be implemented in the foreseeable future, the authors argue. In this scoping study on urban land markets in Zimbabwe, they investigate and identify opportunities for practical partnerships in the field of urban management and land studies, and propose a potential programme of work that could contribute to the more effective functioning of Zimbabwe’s urban land markets.
This cross-sectional community-based nutrition survey was conducted in Northwest Ethiopia with 356 urban residents (71.3% female and 28.7% male). Subjects were selected by random sampling. Socio-demographic data was collected by questionnaire and body measurements taken. Results indicated that, of the sample, 12.9% were undernourished, 21.3% were overweight and 5.9% were obese. Men were taller, heavier and had a higher waist-to-hip ratio compared to women. Fish, fruits and vegetables were consumed ‘less frequently’ or ‘never at all’ by a large proportion of the subjects. Mean energy intake fell below the estimated energy requirements in women, but was significantly higher in men. Protein intake was inadequate in 11.2% of the participants whereas only 2.8% reported carbohydrate intake below the recommended dietary allowance. Significant micronutrient deficiencies were also noted. The overall risk of nutritional inadequacy among the study participants was high, along with their poor dietary intake. The authors call for nutritional programmes in urban settings to address the micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies identified here, to help prevent nutrition-related diseases later in life.