Lawrence Haddad

Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People

Continuing population and consumption growth will mean that the global demand for food will increase for at least another 40 years. Growing competition for land, water, and energy, in addition to the overexploitation of fisheries, will affect our ability to produce food, as will the urgent requirement to reduce the impact of the food system on the environment. The effects of climate change are a further threat. But the world can produce more food and can ensure that it is used more efficiently and equitably. A multifaceted and linked global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security, different components of which are explored here.

Gender differentials in farm productivity: Implications for household efficiency and agricultural policy

Abstract Within many African households, agricultural production is simultaneously carried out on many plots controlled by different members of the household. Detailed plot-level agronomic data from Burkina Faso provides striking evidence of substantial inefficiencies in the allocation of factors of production across the plots controlled by different members of the household. Production function estimates imply that the value of household output could be increased by 10–15% by reallocating currently used factors of production across plots. This finding contradicts standard models of agricultural households. A richer model of behaviour, which recognizes that the individuals who comprise a household compete as well as co-operate, has important implications for the structure of agricultural production and for the design of agricultural policy.

How serious is the neglect of intrahousehold inequality

In this report the authors develop a framework for assessing the consequences of ignoring intrahousehold inequality in the measurement and analysis of poverty and inequality. They apply this framework to data for the Philippines and conclude that : 1) the result of neglecting intrahousehold inequality will probably be considerable understatement of the levels of poverty and inequality. With the Philippine data, measured levels of inequality and poverty were off 30 percent as a result of ignoring intrahousehold variation, and 2) patterns of inequality revealed by household level data are somewhat different from patterns revealed by individual level data, but the differences seem not to be dramatic. To confirm these results, the exercise should be repeated with data from other countries.

The future of the global food system.

Although food prices in major world markets are at or near a historical low, there is increasing concern about food security—the ability of the world to provide healthy and environmentally sustainable diets for all its peoples. This article is an introduction to a collection of reviews whose authors were asked to explore the major drivers affecting the food system between now and 2050. A first set of papers explores the main factors affecting the demand for food (population growth, changes in consumption patterns, the effects on the food system of urbanization and the importance of understanding income distributions) with a second examining trends in future food supply (crops, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, and ‘wild food’). A third set explores exogenous factors affecting the food system (climate change, competition for water, energy and land, and how agriculture depends on and provides ecosystem services), while the final set explores cross-cutting themes (food system economics, food wastage and links with health). Two of the clearest conclusions that emerge from the collected papers are that major advances in sustainable food production and availability can be achieved with the concerted application of current technologies (given sufficient political will), and the importance of investing in research sooner rather than later to enable the food system to cope with both known and unknown challenges in the coming decades.

Some Urban Facts of Life: Implications for Research and Policy

Abstract This review of recent literature explores the challenges to urban food and nutrition security in the rapidly urbanizing developing world. The premise of the manuscript is that the causes of malnutrition and food insecurity in urban and rural areas are different due primarily to a number of phenomena that are unique to or exacerbated by urban living. These areas include: (a) a greater dependence on cash income; (b) weaker informal safety nets; (c) greater labor force participation of women and its consequences for child care; (d) lifestyle changes, particularly diet and exercise patterns; (e) greater availability of public services, but questionable access by the poor; (f) greater exposure to environmental contamination; and (g) governance by a new, possibly nonexistent, set of property rights. The main focus is on identifying what is different about urban areas, so as to better frame the program and policy responses.

The politics of reducing malnutrition: building commitment and accelerating progress

In the past 5 years, political discourse about the challenge of undernutrition has increased substantially at national and international levels and has led to stated commitments from many national governments, international organisations, and donors. The Scaling Up Nutrition movement has both driven, and been driven by, this developing momentum. Harmonisation has increased among stakeholders, with regard to their understanding of the main causes of malnutrition and to the various options for addressing it. The main challenges are to enhance and expand the quality and coverage of nutrition-specific interventions, and to maximise the nutrition sensitivity of more distal interventions, such as agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation. But a crucial third level of action exists, which relates to the environments and processes that underpin and shape political and policy processes. We focus on this neglected level. We address several fundamental questions: how can enabling environments and processes be cultivated, sustained, and ultimately translated into results on the ground? How has high-level political momentum been generated? What needs to happen to turn this momentum into results? How can we ensure that high-quality, well-resourced interventions for nutrition are available to those who need them, and that agriculture, social protection, and water and sanitation systems and programmes are proactively reoriented to support nutrition goals? We use a six-cell framework to discuss the ways in which three domains (knowledge and evidence, politics and governance, and capacity and resources) are pivotal to create and sustain political momentum, and to translate momentum into results in high-burden countries.

Effectiveness of agricultural interventions that aim to improve nutritional status of children: systematic review

Objective To assess the effectiveness of agricultural interventions in improving the nutritional status of children in developing countries. Design Systematic review. Data sources Published and unpublished reports (after 1990) in English identified by searching 10 databases (Agris, Econlit, Eldis, IBSS, IDEAS, IFPRI, Jolis, PubMed, Web of Science, and World Bank), websites, previous systematic reviews, and reference lists and by contacting experts. Study selection Included studies assessed effects of agricultural interventions aiming at improving the nutritional status of children (bio-fortification, home gardens, small scale fisheries and aquaculture, dairy development, and animal husbandry and poultry development). Only studies that used a valid counterfactual analysis were included. Before/after studies and participants/non-participants comparisons affected by selection bias were excluded. Data analysis Results were analysed for four intermediate outcomes (programme participation, income, dietary diversity, and micronutrient intake) and one final outcome (prevalence of under-nutrition). Analysis was by summary tables of mean effects and by meta-analysis (for vitamin A absorption). Results The review included 23 studies, mostly evaluating home garden interventions. The studies reviewed did not report participation rates or the characteristics of participants in programmes. The interventions had a positive effect on the production of the agricultural goods promoted, but not on households’ total income. The interventions were successful in promoting the consumption of food rich in protein and micronutrients, but the effect on the overall diet of poor people remains unclear. No evidence was found of an effect on the absorption of iron, but some evidence exists of a positive effect on absorption of vitamin A. Very little evidence was found of a positive effect on the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children aged under 5. Conclusions The question posed by the review cannot be answered with any level of confidence. The data available show a poor effect of these interventions on nutritional status, but methodological weaknesses of the studies cast serious doubts on the validity of these results. More rigorous and better designed studies are needed, as well as the establishment of agreed quality standards to guide researchers in this important area.

Are estimates of calorie-income fxelasticities too high?: A recalibration of the plausible range

Abstract The wide range of calorie-income elasticities in the literature results, in large part, from the particular calorie and income variables used for estimation. Elasticities across four estimation techniques and four calorie-income variable pairs for a sample of Philippine farm households, ranged from 0.03 to 0.59. Estimates associated with calorie availability are biased upwards, first, because random errors in measuring food purchases are transmitted (by construction) both to calorie availability and total expenditures, and second, because the residual difference between family calorie intake and household calorie availability will often increase with income. The calorie intake-total expenditure variable pair gives the preferred elasticity estimate in the 0.08–0.14 range.

Are women overrepresented among the poor? An analysis of poverty in 10 developing countries

Abstract This paper presents new evidence on the proportion of women in poverty in 10 developing countries. It compares poverty measures for males and females, and for male- and female-headed households, and investigates the sensitivity of these measures to the use of per capita and per adult equivalent units and different definitions of the poverty line. While poverty measures are higher for female-headed households and for females, the differences are significant in only a fifth to a third of the datasets. The contribution of female-headed households to aggregate poverty is less than that of females, due to the low population share of the former. Stochastic dominance analysis reveals that differences between male- and female-headed households, and between males and females, are often insignificant, except for Ghana and Bangladesh, where females are consistently worse-off. These results suggest that cultural and institutional factors may be responsible for higher poverty among women in these countries. Our results point to the need to analyze determinants of household income and consumption using multivariate methods, and to give greater attention to the processes underlying female headship.

Social capital and household welfare in South Africa, 1993-98

The aim in this study is to determine the nature of the causal relationship, if any, between ‘social capital’, as measured by household membership in formal and informal groups and household welfare in South Africa. Using a recently collected panel data set in South Africas largest province, we estimate per capita expenditure functions including measures of social capital. After controlling for fixed effects and simultaneity, we find social capital has no effect in 1993 but a positive and significant effect in 1998.