Lynn R. Brown

Gender, Property Rights, and Natural Resources

This paper analyzes the ways in which gender issues affect property rights and the use of natural resources in developing countries. It examines the informal practices of resource use, usually involving multiple uses by multiple users. Traditional systems of access to land, water, and trees reflect complex dynamics among community members that must be understood in order to design successful policy interventions concerning natural resources. Drawing on examples from developing countries worldwide, the paper identifies broad patterns in how property rights are determined. It discusses the effects of privatization and commoditization of resources, and it identifies key issues to consider in the context of proposed resource management programs.

The gender dimensions of economic adjustment policies: Potential interactions and evidence to date

Abstract Many developing countries have implemented stabilization and structural adjustment programs over the last 20 years. The success of these programs depends critically on individual-level responses to changing economic incentives. Access to, control of, and an ability to move productive economic resources between sectors is determined, in part, by gender. If an individuals gender impedes their ability to fully participate in the economic adjustment process by inhibiting resource access, control or movement adjustment will be impaired. This paper discusses the potential gender dimensions of structural adjustment policies and examines the evidence to dale.

Gender Issues for Food Security in Developing Countries: Implications for Project Design and Implementation

ABSTRACT Women in developing countries play a crucial role in meeting the food and nutrition needs of their families through the “three pillars” of food security—food production, economic access to food, and nutrition security. Empirical evidence shows that income increases controlled by women have a greater impact on household food security, child health and schooling than those controlled by men. Despite womens importance, they are constrained by lower access to land, credit and extension advice, as well as by domestic responsibilities. These constraints have consequences for productivity, efficiency and environmental sustainability. To address these, different approaches can be taken to make the design of agricultural projects gender-sensitive.

The role of labour in household food security: implications of AIDS in Africa

Abstract In increasingly diversified and liberalized economies, understanding the potential for, and constraints to, achieving food security through the labour market is as important for food policy design as understanding the food market. In economies severely affected by AIDS, which impacts directly on labour supply, productivity and options, understanding the paths by which the disease may compromise food security at both household and national levels is crucial to making informed decisions about the allocation of scarce public resources.

On the edge: the role of food-based safety nets in helping vulnerable households manage food insecurity.

Safety nets have often been controversial instruments, condemned in some circles as short-term palliatives or even a waste of money. Much recent evidence shows that safety nets not only support poverty reduction but also economic growth. The existence of safety nets encourages adoption of higher income livelihood strategies that are associated with higher, but prudent, risk. Safety nets should be one component of a broader social protection strategy, which uses a plethora of instruments to address a wide array of risks and associated vulnerability. For the poorest of the poor one of their key concerns is access to sufficient food for a healthy and active life. Food-based safety nets are therefore an important instrument for some of the poor and food insecure who are vulnerable to critical levels of food deficit. Integration of safety nets within broader social protection strategies enables a more cohesive relief and development approach, as opposed to a relief to development continuum or more linear approach. This more approximates reality where relief and development activities generally coexist.

Systematic Client Consultation in Development: The Case of Food Policy Research in Ghana, India, Kenya and Mali

Too often the knowledge generated through food policy research does not become part of the local body of information and consequently is not used by policymakers. This leads to less than optimal food policies. Our paper highlights the need for better linkages between the food research and food policymaking processes. We propose that a key component of the linkage is the integration of clients into the research process. This paper discusses the link between food policy researchers and one group of clients---food policy decisionmakers. The paper first reviews the role of research and clients in the policymaking process and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates clients into the research process. Case studies utilizing client consultation in Ghana, India, Kenya, and Mali illustrate the hypothesis that integration of all client groups, including policy decisionmakers and in-country researchers, beginning at the priority-setting stage of the research process, may best influence ultimate policy decisions.