Cash transfers and high food prices: Explaining outcomes on Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme

An ongoing and highly politicised debate concerns the relative efficacy of cash transfers versus food aid. This paper aims to shed light on this debate, drawing on new empirical evidence from Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). Our data derive from a two-wave panel survey conducted in 2006 and 2008. Ethiopia has experienced unprecedented rates of inflation since 2007, which have reduced the real purchasing power of PSNP cash payments. Our regression findings confirm that food transfers or ‘cash plus food’ packages are superior to cash transfers alone – they enable higher levels of income growth, livestock accumulation and self-reported food security. These results raise questions of fundamental importance to global humanitarian response and social protection policy. We draw out some implications for the design of social transfer programmes and describe some steps that could be taken to enable ‘predictable transfers to meet predictable needs’.     

Linking agricultural development to school feeding in sub-Saharan Africa: Theoretical perspectives

This paper takes as a starting point the proposition that social protection interventions involving food can be used to promote transformational change in family farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose is to highlight the complexity of pathways to agricultural transformation associated with the seemingly simple idea of home-grown school feeding (HGSF), an idea that is increasingly held up as “win–win”. By reviewing the HGSF literature and the main theories underpinning it – structured demand, localism, family farmer development – we expose areas of inconsistency across the literature and programmes as well as possible tensions that may arise in attempting to pursue both market and social objectives in the same initiative. The arguments presented herein aim to provide a basis for moving towards clarity on (1) a theory of change for HGSF programmes; (2) the conditions under which HGSF programmes are more able to yield positive agricultural development outcomes and; (3) an agenda for moving forward on research and impact evaluation. This research agenda also speaks more broadly to important under-researched areas within the general social protection and agricultural development discourse.     

From food availability to nutritional capabilities: Advancing food security analysis

This paper has a threefold objective. First, it provides a comprehensive review of different approaches to analysing food security. Second, it highlights the added value provided by the capability approach and the human development paradigm. Third, it proposes a methodology to assess food security through this approach. Our proposal entails three basic steps: (1) analysis of food entitlements; (2) analysis of nutritional capabilities and (3) analysis of the capability to be food secure. In this way, we can move beyond income, entitlement or livelihood related frameworks, and identify the root causes of food insecurity. Food insecurity can be the result of a lack of education, health or other basic capabilities that constitute people’s wellbeing. This, therefore, allows situating the study within the broader area of wellbeing and development.     

Consumer satisfaction with food products

An important problem facing public policy makers is how best to measure market performance. Economists have traditionally used criteria such as the existence of monopoly forces, entry barriers, and externalities in production and consumption. Increasingly, however, policy makers are viewing the measurement of consumer satisfaction as an important additional approach to the assessment of market performance, even though consumer attitudes may lack some of the precision and objectivity of the economist's measures.¹ Responding to the growth of the consumer movement, policy makers are assigning a relatively high priority to the development of programmes designed to protect the consumer interest. Effective consumer protection programmes depend on the availability of information which can provide a basis for comparing levels of consumer satisfaction across a range of products and services, for identifying problem areas, and for effectively allocating limited consumer protection resources. Given the number of alternative foods on the market and the central role of food consumption in everday life, effective resource allocation is of special importance to policy makers concerned with food and agriculture.     

Matters of food and farming in Asia

Leaving aside the plantation enclaves, the problems of food and farming in Asia are centred on subsistence farming. This, in spite of recent improvements in farming techniques, remains subject to natural hazards, population pressure and risks which only those with ready access to land, labour, capital and know-how are able to face. By comparison, small cultivators, tenants and landless labourers suffer serious disadvantages. These can be reduced only as a result of reforms which bring security of tenure, transfers of land and a just system of land tax combined with public works programmes. Thus economic growth, coupled with social equilibrium and political stability, could be achieved.     

Can food-for-work encourage agricultural production?

Food-for-work (FFW) is the most widely used type of public works program in Ethiopia through which a high share of the food aid is distributed. This paper assesses the impacts of FFW in Tigray, a chronically food insecure region in Ethiopia, in terms of relieving liquidity constraints and thereby improving input use in agriculture. A Heckman selection model on the adoption and intensity of fertilizer use demonstrated that FFW positively influenced the decision to adopt fertilizer and there was no evidence of disincentive effect.     

Food product composition,consumer health,and public policy: Introduction and overview of special section

As efforts to improve diets in high income countries intensify, attention has turned to how policies may influence diet composition. The case studies in this special issue contribute to our understanding of how two main types of policies have influenced food product composition and dietary outcomes: (1) policies affecting food manufacturers’ input costs and (2) information policy affecting competition. Research on the first type of policy is relatively new, but suggests that US commodity policies would not be good policy instruments to influence diets, except through the long run impacts of agricultural research. Research on the impacts of information policy continues to demonstrate that it can spur food industry competition to introduce healthier products, but may not result in healthier diets. International comparisons show where the US experience may have relevance for other high income countries.     

How can policy processes remove barriers to sustainable food systems in Europe? Contributing to a policy framework for agri-food transitions

A new food policy coherent with the goal of achieving sustainable food systems implies changing visions and radically revising the understanding of the system on which agricultural and food-related policies act. This paper identifies and discusses policy processes that contribute to sustainable food systems in Europe. Based on a conceptual framework that links the policy cycle approach to transition theories, we (i) assess the evolution of policy cycles of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to highlight how the food and nutrition concepts have evolved and been reframed throughout the five phases of the CAP, (ii) map and classify available policy instruments to assess potential synergies and gaps in view of their reorganization and (iii) indicate and discuss strategic tools for sustainable food policies. This contribution goes beyond the current literature highlighting the obstacles which hinder the transition to a policy regime that embodies the nexus among food and nutrition security, natural capital preservation and climatic and social justice, and proposing new avenues for food policy studies.     

行业收入差距适度性测度研究——以浙江为例

本文界定了行业收入差距适度性的内涵,提出了具体的判断标准;从行业收入差距、经济社会协调发展(经济增长、资源配置效率、分配公平、社会稳定)多个方面构建了行业收入差距适度性评价指标体系;提出了行业收入差距适度性的测度方法;以1990—2010年统计数据为样本,对浙江行业收入差距适度性进行了测度与综合评价。研究结果表明:浙江行业收入差距总体上呈现出不断扩大的趋势;除了社会稳定评价指数出现先递增后递减的趋势外,经济增长、资源配置效率、分配公平、经济社会协调发展综合评价指数均呈现持续上升的线性趋势,这说明浙江经济社会协调发展态势良好;从静态适度性和动态适度性评价指数看,浙江行业收入差距各类适度性评价指数除个别年份出现不适度状态外,整体上均处于良好适度、协调发展的轨迹上。在此基础上提出了相应的政策建议。     

Socio-economic characteristics and the effect of taxation as a health policy instrument

This paper analyses the quantitative effects of using economic instruments in health policy on the basis of price elasticities calculated from estimated demand systems. The nutritional effects of various taxation schemes are compared for households in different age groups and social classes. Focusing on the consumption of saturated fats, fibre and sugar; it is generally found that the impact of price instruments is stronger for lower social classes than in other groups of the population. With regard to age groups, it is mostly the youngest that decrease their demand for saturated fat in response to price changes, while it is mostly the middle-aged who exhibit price responsiveness in their demand for sugar. These groups are however not considered as key target groups for dietary regulation; thus tax instruments may be effective in improving diets on average, but the design of the instruments and the targeting of vulnerable groups with special needs should be done with care. It should be noted that a tax on a single nutrient or food may have undesired effects on the demand for other food components, though this may be avoided by introducing taxes/subsidies on several food products simultaneously.     

The food security challenge for southern Africa

This paper considers food security aims and instruments against a background of changed circumstances internationally and regionally. The international changes discussed are: a sharper focus on achieving macro-economic stabilization, which inter alia has led to closer scrutiny of what the public sector should be financing, and a decline in funding for agriculture; a reduced role for governments in commercial-type activities; the shift towards greater integration of world markets; and changing prospects for international aid flows. Regionally, southern Africa is moving away from a past of conflict and inward-looking economies, towards greater cooperation and trade, and less interventionist economic management.The commendable SADC food security strategy paper of June 1997 is considered, and its implications drawn out. The main messages are that (a) household food insecurity results from poverty, (b) national food insecurity results from faltering development and weak external trade performance, and (c) future strategies must therefore lie with greater efficiency in the use of resources and with patterns of development which are most effective in creating employment and incomes. Arguably there is therefore no case for a food security agenda that is separate from broad-based development aimed at poverty alleviation. This understanding of food security is at variance with some of the policies and development programmes in the region. Promotion of self-sufficiency in grains, specific food-security instruments, and controls over and interventions in markets may all be counter to improving food security for the region if they hinder policy and institutional reforms called for by the wider development agenda.The main roles for governments in promoting food security are discussed in terms of creating an enabling environment for development, correcting for market failures, and targeted measures to achieve social objectives. Food security needs both an urban and a rural focus, and involves all economic sectors. For rural areas, governments' roles may usefully be defined in terms of supporting household strategies aimed at raising and stabilizing incomes through livelihood diversification, intensification of farming, and migration.Two priority policy areas which are central to achieving food security objectives are discussed at some length: trade policy and the promotion of smallholder farming. The roles of government in these areas are discussed in the light of economic theory and past experiences in the region. A vision for a future trade regime is outlined, and strategic interventions by governments are identified. The challenge for governments in supporting smallholder farming is, first, to define with greater rigour than in the past the priority uses for public funds, and, second, to find much more efficient ways of delivering services than in the past. It will otherwise be difficult to make a case for reversing the decline in public funding for the sector.The paper ends with brief discussions of the roles for aid and for SADC in promoting food security, and with a question of whether a new initiative is needed to strengthen trade policy skills in the region.     

Regional trade,government policy and food security: Recent evidence from Zambia

Given heavy dependence on rainfed maize production, countries in East and Southern Africa must routinely cope with pronounced production and consumption volatility in their primary food staple. Typical policy responses include increased food aid flows, government commercial imports and stock releases, and tight controls on private sector trade. This paper examines recent evidence from Zambia, using a simple economic model to assess the likely impact of maize production shocks on the domestic maize price and on staple food consumption under alternative policy regimes. In addition to an array of public policy instruments, the analysis evaluates the impact of two key private sector responses in moderating food consumption volatility – private cross-border maize trade and consumer substitution of an alternate food staple (cassava) for maize. The analysis suggests that, given a favorable policy environment, private imports and increased cassava consumption together could fill roughly two-thirds of the maize consumption shortfall facing vulnerable households during drought years.     

Food beliefs and food supply chains: The impact of religion and religiosity in Israel

This paper demonstrates that religion and religiosity affect norms, which affect food consumption patterns and production. Heterogeneity and asymmetric information lead to multiple certification channels as well as multiple supply chains. Major supply chains may address multiple constituencies that are secular or less religious. Technological change affects norms and thus the food system. We obtain these results by analyzing the food systems for meat products in Israel where there are three religions – Jews, Muslims, and Christians – and people assign themselves three levels of religiosity – secular, conservative, and orthodox. Israel has multiple Kosher and Halal certifiers and several specialized supermarket chains for orthodox groups. Its main supermarket chains serve secular and some conservative segments. The immigration of secular Jews from Russia led to the proliferation of non-Kosher supply chains and products, and increased consumption of pork. New technologies and higher incomes led to emergence of fast food chains serving orthodox Jews that had previously tended to eat at home.     

Food and health research in Europe: Structures,gaps and futures

BackgroundFood and health research is concerned with production, marketing, choice, regulation and policy for food as it affects health, and the mechanisms and control of diet-related diseases, nutrition and obesity. It covers positive and negative impacts of food on health, as well as issues related to under and over consumption of food. The European Union-funded study FAHRE (Food and Health Research in Europe) has described structures and identified gaps and needs for food and health research across Europe.MethodsFAHRE was conducted by a consortium of partners in 7 European countries, including private and public research organisations, university-based researchers and civil society organisations. National advisers in 32 European countries made reports on the structures of food and health research, and nine experts made reports on food and health research themes. At the end of this phase, a stakeholder conference was held to review and discuss the findings, and from this a Strategic Document was developed and distributed electronically for wider consultation at national level. This report presents the findings of the Strategic Document.ResultsFAHRE proposed that future research using public funding should address the global issue of unhealthy eating, including obesity, which causes preventable disability and disease, reduced working life and increased healthcare costs. FAHRE suggests a move of the focus of research from healthy food to healthy eating, and to overcome the existing separation between food research and health research through a shift of research towards food for health.EU member states have widely differing national systems for research management, and information is poorly standardised for comparisons. There are many research programmes in both food and health, usually managed by ministries of science, but rarely in collaboration with ministries of health. Industry mainly contributes ‘near product’ research: few industry small and medium enterprises are engaged with food and health research, nor are civil society organisations. EU food and health research has been focused within the agriculture research theme, and not sufficiently linked to health research.FAHRE recommends coordination of food and health research through an EU-level Coordinating Agency, with budget and representation from the three EU directorates Agriculture, Health and Research, the member states, and wider stakeholders including civil society and industry. There should be corresponding ‘food and health research agencies’ in the member states bringing together national policy-makers and stakeholders, and directing research funding. Food safety agencies may provide a model for this joint approach. Further proposals include strengthening social and policy research, accessing Structural Funds for research programmes, and more strategic approaches to determining research programmes and funding.ConclusionFood and health research in Europe should move from ‘healthy food’, which concentrates on food as a product, to research for ‘healthy eating’ which is concerned with appropriate intake and reducing disease. Coordination of research on this theme, at European level, and between member states, could deliver major economic and social returns.     

Taking measures in times of crisis: The political economy of obesity prevention in Spain

This article reports on a qualitative analysis of the measures proposed at the international level, but with a special focus on those adopted in Spain during the last decade. Analyzing biomedical definition of obesity as an epidemic and costly disease, this text aims is to unpack the conceptual structure of the obesity prevention model, and to reflect on the limitations of a top-down pattern of health education and communication in health that, focusing on individual aspects of lifestyles, has involved very little citizen participation in general, and less still by those diagnosed as overweight. In the process of translating international guidelines into national action plans, the effects of historical changes and socioeconomic interests have been largely ignored, and the symbolic and material needs of the stakeholders have gone unrecognized. The discussion considers the minor role attributed in public health policy to the food and eating as social practice, to the specific structural factors that have taken on greater importance during the economic crisis – job insecurity, depressed wages, austerity measures – and to the social determinants of the differential distribution of obesity – social class, gender, ethnicity, age – and suggests that this inattention to their impact may underlie the failure of these strategies to halt the apparently growing obesity rate.     

Policy coherence and food security: The effects of OECD countries’ agricultural policies

There have been important changes to agricultural policies in many OECD countries over the past decade and the international spill-over effects of support and protection have diminished. Now would be a good time to eliminate remaining distortions and put in place more efficient alternatives, including social safety nets and tools to help farmers manage risk. This would lock in the benefits of reform and simultaneously address charges of policy incoherence. In the context of high food prices, new issues have emerged with potential implications for food security. They include export restrictions, the use of biofuel mandates, and the opportunities and threats presented by increased foreign investment in agriculture. On these issues, as well as in terms of conventional support mechanisms, policies in emerging economies (in particular the BRIICS) are increasingly important. A pro-active agenda for policy coherence would involve not just eliminating policies that distort trade, but also enacting positive measures to increase food availability, for example by raising agricultural productivity, using resources sustainably, and eliminating waste and over-consumption. Across countries, there are important gains to be realised from knowledge sharing, and from multilateral action to provide global public goods – not least smoother functioning of the multilateral trading system.     

Evaluating the impact of reforming the food subsidy program in Egypt: A Mixed Demand approach

Food subsidy is one of the policies considered to protect consumer welfare against food price increases, in particular when the insufficient local production has to be complemented by food imports with volatile prices. Egypt has experienced several “food crises” (the latest in 2008), which put an halt to attempts to reform in depth the system of food subsidies because of social unrest. In this paper, we use a Mixed Demand approach to analyze the consumption structure of Egyptian households. Our model specification takes into consideration the characteristics of the Egyptian food subsidy system, where some food items have predetermined quotas while others are associated with predetermined (subsidized) prices. Price, income and quota elasticities are estimated from the Egyptian family expenditure survey, and welfare change measures are derived by income class. Simulations of various options to eliminate subsidies on selected food items are conducted. We estimate the negative welfare impact of the reforms, especially in the context of increasing food prices, by comparing welfare effects of policy options by income quartiles and by household category (rural, urban).     

Sufficient nourishment worldwide via transfer payments

The paper illustrates an unconventional approach to providing adequate nourishment worldwide. Regions with an insufficient calorie supply receive transfer payments in order to increase their food budgets. The transfer payments are financed by a flat income tax in OECD countries. A general equilibrium model, which contains this transfer payment mechanism as well as information about nutrition, is applied for the analysis. The resulting tax rate is 0.55% of OECD countries’ income or a required total transfer of 112 billion USD. With the money allocated the receiver regions boost their domestic production as well as increasing their food imports. This in turn affects agriculture in OECD countries by promoting production.     

Compounding food and income insecurity in Yemen: Challenges from climate change

This paper provides a model-based assessment of local and global climate change impacts for the case of Yemen, focusing on agricultural production, household incomes and food security. Global climate change is mainly transmitted through rising world food prices. Our simulation results suggest that climate change induced price increases for food will raise agricultural GDP while decreasing real household incomes and food security. Rural non-farm households are hit hardest as they tend to be net food consumers with high food budget shares, but farm households also experience real income losses given that many of them are net buyers of food. The impacts of local climate change are less clear given the ambiguous predictions of global climate models (GCMs) with respect to future rainfall patterns in Yemen. Local climate change impacts manifest itself in long term yield changes, which differ between two alternative climate scenarios considered. Under the MIR scenario, agricultural GDP is somewhat higher than with perfect mitigation and rural incomes rise due to higher yields and lower prices for sorghum and millet. Under the CSI scenario, positive and negative yield changes cancel each other out. As a result, agricultural GDP and household incomes hardly change compared to perfect mitigation.     

Urban food policies in German city regions: An overview of key players and policy instruments

Although food is an emerging topic on municipal policy and planning agendas, a systematic examination of policy development, its implementation and the instruments used at the urban level is lacking. This study was carried out with the aim of gaining new insights into the prevalence of certain food policy instruments and capacity of policy action. In order to do so, we developed an analytical framework to investigate urban policy and planning approaches related to food issues and applied it in ten large German cities. First, we identified different actor groups and analysed their role in urban food policy (level of involvement in municipal food projects). We then studied the variety of policy and planning instruments and their application for different elements in the food system. For the empirical study, we employed a case study approach and utilised data gathering methods of qualitative research, i.e. expert interviews and document analysis. Our empirical findings in the studied cities reveal that urban food policy activities are still very fragmented and often based on individual initiatives within the administration. Integrated urban food policies and their implementation through urban food strategies are still an exception in major cities in Germany. We found that municipal actors follow mainly sectoral approaches, using a wide array of steering instruments, i.e. informational instruments and public procurement policies. However, their capacities for policy implementation remain limited due to missing financial and staffing resources. Accordingly, the potential the urban food system offers for sustainable development through multifunctionality and sectoral integration, is still underexploited.The systematic approach developed in this study may contribute to a better understanding of different policy approaches taken. The applied typology of policy instruments might also be useful for identifying effective ways to implement urban food strategies, to understand mismatches between instruments and different policy domains, levels and administrative units, e.g. at the urban-rural interface, and to design of new policy instruments.