Table 1 summarises the targets and intervention variables around which food security policies could be organised, and the types of policy or project associated with these targets and variables.
This paper was not centrally concerned with the productivity-raising interventions which are essential to the achievement of medium-term food security.6 Nevertheless, it is cautionary to bear in mind that, according to one source at least, such measures will benefit the rural food-insecure, even if they are net food consumers, more than food subsidies, providing a number of market conditions are in place (Praveen, 1994).7 The same author concludes that food subsidies, if adequately targeted, are the more effective mechanism for ameliorating the position of urban households.
6 These are discussed in the other paper in Part 3 of this volume.
7 His analysis was based on India, hut the model can be generalised.
Table 1 Summary of targets and projects
Target |
Intervention variable |
Type of policy or project |
Comments |
Home-produced food |
- Producer prices |
- Agricultural prices |
Medium-term effect on food security. Can be combined with employment projects. |
- Input prices/availability |
- Input/service provision. |
||
- Storage facilities |
- Investment |
||
Trade income |
- Producer prices |
- Agricultural prices. |
Medium-term rather than safety-net approach, although may include both. |
- Input prices/availability |
- Input/service provision |
||
- Marketing infrastructure |
- Capital investment. |
||
Labour income |
Employment opportunities. |
- Food-for-work. |
Often in emergency contexts, then extended. Targeting needed. Trade-off between assets and income. |
- Public programmes. |
|||
Transfers |
- Consumer prices |
- Food subsidies |
Safety-net polices. High costs, targeting needed. |
- Income supplements |
- Direct support |
Of the safety-net measures, employment-related interventions are more in favour with donors and international institutions. A key issue regarding food-for-work and public works programmes is the tradeoff between employment and asset creation in the design of the project, and hence the emphasis on short-term or medium-term food security. Targeting is also very important, although this can be achieved in a variety of ways. As with any safety-net programme, if it is not adequately targeted, it is using resources inefficiently. Wage levels relative to potential alternatives are a crucial variable. A final issue concerns implementation procedures. There is an increasing emphasis on low-level (in terms of administrative hierarchies) control and decision-making, although a related factor is the ability to integrate such programmes more fully with the broader development effort. There is the possibility that these two trends may be contradictory and, in any case, the need for effective co-ordination of all safety-net activities is stressed. Unlike other safety-net measures, employment schemes can contribute to medium-term food security through the creation of appropriate assets.
Consumer price subsidies have been phased out in a number of countries in the Region, and are not popular with donors. Nevertheless, they can provide an effective complement to employment and/or other medium term measures, particularly in providing support to urban consumers. Targeting is again crucial, and there are a variety of ways this can be accomplished, none of them cost-free. As with employment programmes. self-targeting mechanisms are increasingly favoured owing to their low administrative cost and simplicity.
Many countries in the Region run health- and nutrition-related programmes involving the provision of free rations to vulnerable individuals. These are no doubt important, although they rely on a substantial knowledge base regarding individuals' health and nutrition status. Without this knowledge, they can be very difficult to target effectively.
Overall, the following general points stand out from this review. First, safety-net programmes to improve household food security should be linked, wherever possible and appropriate to medium-term, productivity-raising measures. Second, employment programmes, because of their potential asset-creating role, are preferable in most circumstances to food subsidies. Third, the identification of target groups is critical, as is the ability to reach them successfully. Fourth, a participatory approach to the planning and implementation of safety-net programmes may be desirable, but this should not mean that effective coordination of diverse food security programmes does not take place.
There is a sense, however, in which these criteria are incomplete. As a final comment, two further issues should be highlighted. First, for successful and (in particular) self-sustaining implementation, food security programmes require an analytical and operational capacity at all levels of the hierarchy, i.e. at national, provincial and district administrative levels, and this is not always present. In some circumstances, therefore, there may be a need to augment the country's capacity in this respect. In other words, an essential pre-cursor of policy implementation is an adequate "food security infrastructure".
Second, the issue of gender is significant for two main reasons: on the one hand, a substantial proportion of the poorest households, particularly in rural areas, are headed by women; on the other, where male-headed rural households divide their economic activities according to gender, with the women being responsible for providing the food needs of the household from their own activities, then rural household food security becomes a strongly gender-related issue.
It does not follow, however, that within food security programmes there should be a separate emphasis on women. In fact, this can lead to the possibility of marginalising gender issues through the (incorrect) supposition that they are taken care of through non-specific programmes. This would reduce the effectiveness of programmes aimed specifically at women such as those designed to strengthen women's organisations and to give a higher profile to gender issues. There may need to be an emphasis on women participants within food security projects, but an awareness of the importance of gender does not imply the necessity, or desirability, of using it as a programming criterion with respect to food security. That is to say, gender issues should inform food security programmes rather than vice-versa.
Viewpoint Although the trade-offs between income provision and asset creation are recognised, there are also important complementarities between short- and medium-term food security interventions, particularly in the case of employment creation programmes. The private sector has an important role to play in combating food insecurity, especially in facilitating improvements in the marketing infrastructure. Many smallholder farmers are also net food consumers. Attention should be given to income-augmenting opportunities in rural areas, in addition to productivity-raising measures. At the same time, the role of education and training in raising skill levels is important. Finally, the overriding effect of currency devaluation on domestic food prices cannot be ignored, as well as the role of government choice concerning the direction of food security programmes. With respect to the latter, programmes on input cost minimising have been successful in enhancing output, |
