4. FOOD INSECURITY AND VULNERABILITY, AND POVERTY: FROM PRIORITY TO INTERVENTION

Background

The analysis of the country studies in the previous section revealed that food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty are issues that receive varying degrees of attention in the various sections of the country reports. In this review, the focus in this section is on the consistency with which food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty are dealt with in the reports. The central question is “Does the selection of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority in a country result in clear definitions of food insecurity and vulnerability, in detailed analysis, in formulated policies and strategies, and, finally, in interventions aimed at reducing food insecurity and vulnerability?”

The analysis is necessarily based on simplified parameters - whether or not a topic is defined or whether or not a policy is mentioned - because otherwise the number of possible relationships would be infinite. The issue of poverty is added to this analysis because it has a direct relationship with food insecurity and vulnerability, and because PRSPs, with their direct focus on poverty, are included in the review. The review follows the same sequence of topics as in Chapter 3, but, because the focus is on internal consistency, the topics are grouped into three subsections:

• report preparation, development priorities, and defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty;
• analysis of food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty; and
• from policies to intervention.

The overall results are first presented in cross-sectoral tables to gain a general impression about any relationship that might exist. The reference point in all these tables is the central question of whether or not food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as a development priority. Subsequently, the status of the issues is shown for all countries individually in tables, for both CCA reports and PRSPs.

Report preparation, development priorities, and defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty

Food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as a development priority in most of the CCA reports (31 out of 50) and in a few of the PRSPs (4 out of 25) (see Section on “Definitions used for food security and poverty”, page 9). One would expect that priority setting would have resulted in defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and also that the participation of FAO in report preparation would have had a positive effect on both the identification of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority, and its definition. The overall perspective on these issues is stated in Table 29, with the definition of poverty added because poverty is directly related to food insecurity and vulnerability, and as the PRSPs focus on poverty.

Table 29. Food insecurity and vulnerability as development priority, definitions and the involvement of FAO (percentage)

Q: Food insecurity and vulnerability stated as development priority?
A: Yes or no, as a proportion of CCA reports or PRSPs.

The statement of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority does not necessarily lead to a definition of food insecurity and vulnerability, as only 35 percent of the CCA reports and 25 percent of the PRSPs that state this priority also contain definitions. Poverty is much more widely defined in the CCA reports and PRSPs, irrespective of any statement that food insecurity and vulnerability is a development priority. The involvement of FAO in report preparation had no clear positive effect on the identification of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority in the CCA reports.

Tables 30 and 31 provide information on the issues on a country basis for the CCA reports and the PRSPs, respectively.

Comparison of FAO involvement in CCA report preparation and presence of a stated definition for food insecurity and vulnerability shows that FAO involvement does not necessarily lead to the statement of such definitions.

The tables show the limited consistency among the statement of food insecurity and vulnerability as development priority and defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty in both the CCA reports and the PRSPs. Comparison of Tables 30 and 31 shows that food insecurity and vulnerability receives much more attention in CCA reports than in PRSPs.

Table 30. CCA report preparation, development priorities and defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty

Table 31. PRSP preparation, development priorities and defining food insecurity and vulnerability, and poverty

Note: * = interim PRSP.

Additional analysis shows that food insecurity and vulnerability receives no higher priority as a development goal in the least developed countries. Regional differences in either policy goals or defining food insecurity and vulnerability or defining poverty cannot be detected in the country studies selected for the review.

The analysis

A reasonable expectation is that the statement of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority in a country report is followed by an analysis of more-than-average detail of the various aspects of food insecurity and vulnerability. To test this expectation, a number of parameters used in the analysis are related to the presence or absence of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority in Table 32.

Aspects of food insecurity, vulnerability and poverty are usually expressed in indicators, and one might consider the number of indicators stated to be a measure of the depth of the analysis. In Table 32, the average number of indicators is given for CCA reports and PRSPs where food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as a development priority and for where this is not the case. It appears that the statement of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority does not result in a significantly higher number of indicators for either food insecurity and vulnerability or poverty in CCA reports and PRSPs.

Table 32. Food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and various aspects of the analysis

Q: Food insecurity and vulnerability stated as development priority?
A: Yes or no.

The relationship between food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and the number of causes identified seems to be positive in CCA reports, but the variability in the number of causes is high (from 0 to 8; see Table 33) and the difference demonstrated between the averages is not significant. For the PRSPs, the average numbers of causes stated differ between reports that state food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and those that do not. The first category of PRSPs, however, contain only four reports (16 percent) and a clear relationship cannot therefore be established.

The use of models to analyse food insecurity and vulnerability is clearly more common in CCA reports with food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority than in reports without this priority. This relationship is not present in the PRSPs.

In approximately two-thirds of the CCA reports, a relationship is stated between food insecurity and vulnerability on the one hand, and poverty on the other, irrespective of whether food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as a development priority. Not surprisingly, all PRSPs that state food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority also indicate a link with poverty.

The general impression arising from the review of the indicators of the analysis of food insecurity and vulnerability is that there seems to be a tendency towards a more detailed analysis in the CCA reports in which food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as a development priority. The variability among the country studies is, however, substantial and a consistent relationship cannot be established. The absence of the abovementioned tendency in PRSPs is directly explained by their primary focus being poverty rather than food insecurity and vulnerability.

The data for the individual countries dealt with in the CCA reports and PRSPs are stated in Tables 33 and 34, and give a direct insight into the substantial differences in the analysis indicators for food insecurity and vulnerability in the country studies.

Table 33. CCA reports, food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and indicators from the analysis

Table 34. PRSPs, food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and indicators of the analysis

Note: * = interim PRSP.

From analysis to intervention

The statement that food insecurity and vulnerability is a development priority in a country report also raises expectations regarding the presence of policies aimed at reducing food insecurity and vulnerability, and their implementation. In this section, the relationship is discussed between policy statement and the three steps in implementation: policy formulation, strategies, interventions. The discussion starts with an overview of these relationships in both CCA reports and PRSPs (see Table 35).

Table 35. Food insecurity and vulnerability as development priority and the formulation of policies, strategies and interventions (percentage)

Q: Food insecurity and vulnerability stated as a development priority?
A: Yes or no.

Most CCA reports with food insecurity and vulnerability stated as a development priority combine this with a long-term policy on food insecurity and vulnerability. Conversely, absence of the development priority results in most cases in the absence of such policy. In PRSPs, the linkage between development priority and policy is less clear because food insecurity and vulnerability is stated as such in only 16 percent of the country studies.

A long-term poverty eradication policy is mentioned in the majority of CCA reports and practically all PRSPs, irrespective of the inclusion or omission of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority.

The statement of strategies towards the three major aspects of food insecurity and vulnerability in CCA reports and PRSPs and the relationship with the presence or absence of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority provides a mixed picture. The CCA reports that state food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority state more strategies in all three fields distinguished. In the case of the PRSPs, this seems to be the other way around, but the small number of papers with food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority makes it impossible to draw any general conclusion in this respect. Overall, the PRSPs state strategies more often than the CCA reports, although the PRSPs cover the same countries as the CCA reports.

In CCA reports with food insecurity and vulnerability stated as a development priority, interventions are more frequently mentioned than in CCA reports without this explicit priority.

The general picture shows that interventions, as the final action undertaken in the sequence from development priority to the realization of policies, are less clearly stated in the country studies than are both strategies and policies, and in this respect the CCA reports and the PRSPs run parallel.

The policies, strategies and interventions per country are stated in Tables 36 and 37. Both tables show the absence of clear relationships between the identification of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and the various aspects of policy formulation and implementation. Furthermore it becomes clear that regional patterns are absent in any of the aspects shown.

Table 36. CCA reports: food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority, and policies, strategies and interventions

Table 37. PRSPs: food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority, and policies, strategies and interventions

Note: * = interim PRSP

From priority to intervention

The review of the consistency between the statement of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and the analysis of food insecurity, policy formulation and policy implementation gives a mixed result. The country studies in which food insecurity and vulnerability is mentioned as a development priority have a slight tendency to state more causes of food insecurity, and these studies tend to make more use of models to explain food insecurity issues. This points to a more elaborate analysis in these studies. A similar positive relationship can be observed between development priority and strategies related to the socio-economic and political environment, food consumption, and health and care. These few tendencies and indications of relationships are, however, exceptions. The general conclusion must be that there is no consistent pattern of linkage between selection of food insecurity and vulnerability as a development priority and detailed analysis and policies that result in interventions to reduce food insecurity and vulnerability.