No description available.

Ninety percent of Canadian food aid donations were tied to domestic procurement sources until 2005. Procurement restrictions were reduced to 50% in 2005 and were eliminated in 2008. Implementing agencies are now free to procure commodities of their choice in locations of their choice. This study investigates whether the untying of Canadian food aid procurement in 2008 has made procurement decisions more responsive to changes in the relative prices of wheat, maize, and rice in Canadian cereal food aid baskets. It applies a pooled empirical model with regional fixed effects to regional price data and data on Canadian government-funded food aid shipments to five recipient regions. The results are mainly counterintuitive, which is partly attributable to a number of data and model limitations. Consequently, this study does not provide empirical evidence of cereal commodity substitution after the untying of Canadian food aid in 2008. However, there is still reason to believe that donor agencies substitute between cereal food aid commodities, especially after the elimination formal procurement restrictions. Further research is however needed to generate empirical evidence for this. / May 2017

In light of reports of protests and riots in response to rising food prices and food insecurity, this study asks whether the provision of food aid has an effect on the incidence of political unrest in recipient countries. It uses annual data on the quantities of American wheat aid delivered to 143 countries between 1972 and 2006. To overcome the potential for bias due to endogeneity, variations in U.S. agricultural production and recipient countries’ probability of receiving aid are used to predict the annual quantity of food aid provided to each country. Results from the instrumented regressions suggest that the provision of food aid does not have any impact on the incidence of political unrest.

Food insecurity in Africa is a threat to future generations because many countries rely on potentially unsustainable food policies. Eritrea's indigenous food sustainability policy has not been explored or analyzed in a scholarly manner. This qualitative case study analyzed the effectiveness of the current policy of food sustainability without relying on foreign food aid in Eritrea. The main research question addressed relates to how Eritrean irrigation farmers understand and implement the Eritrean government's food sustainability policy. The theoretical framework for this study, Kingdon's policy stream, set the agenda for a policy of sustainable indigenous Eritrean agricultural development without food aid. I have collected data by conducting semistructured interviews with 15 farmers who each have at least 7 years' experience providing food for their own families. Data from the interviews was audio recorded, transcribed, reviewed by the interviewees for increased credibility and reliability, translated in to English, and emergently coded and categorized for theme and pattern analysis. This study`s findings contain important lessons relative to advancing food self-sufficiency in Eritrea. The implications for social change across Africa may include informing practitioners and policymakers of the importance of applying appropriate policies to encourage food self-sufficiency.

No description available.

This study focuses on the constraints, adaptations and innovations in the livelihoods of Orma pastoralists. The fieldwork took place with families around Tiltila, Waldena and Kalalani over a period of 9 months in 2007/08. The position of pastoralist peoples in East Africa is characterised by social, political and economic marginalisation, weak land tenure, and declining per capita livestock holdings, while their shrinking grazing lands are widely regarded to be on the front line of climate change, both in terms of climate impacts and biofuel/agribusiness land pressure. The dearth of good quality data on pastoralist populations and livelihoods is widely cited as one of the fundamental barriers to improving the effectiveness of development support in the drylands. This study seeks to address these knowledge gaps for Orma pastoralists, while contributing to the body of theory on pastoralist livelihood dynamics. Data on the effects of wealth, education and food aid on household mobility were analysed using a theory of asset threshold dynamics. An adapted typology of livelihood strategies was developed to interpret and structure the data. Using child mortality as a proxy for respondent health, the impacts of wealth and mobility status on families’ health were explored. In the context of an almost total lack of data on community redistribution of food aid, both for the Orma and for East African pastoralists more generally, the study provides empirical data on de facto community food aid allocation patterns. The study also examines a controversial large-scale expropriation of land in Tana River (subsidised under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism) which will undermine the capacity of Orma pastoralists and other minority groups, to adapt to increased and more extreme environmental variability. In an environment in which enrolment in formal education is very low (particularly for girls), the study found that community nursery schools represent a relatively recent (and thus far undocumented) innovation organised and funded by groups of parents. The data demonstrates unprecedented levels of female enrolment despite cost constraints faced by least wealthy families. It is therefore suggested that incorporation of the community nursery model into the basic literacy element of the proposed national distance learning strategy, offers significant potential for addressing ‘Education For All’ in Kenya’s drylands.

Yes / We report qualitative findings from a study in a multi-ethnic, multi-faith city with high levels of deprivation. Primary research over 2 years consisted of three focus groups and 18 semi-structured interviews with food insecurity service providers followed by focus groups with 16 White British and Pakistani women in or at risk of food insecurity. We consider food insecurity using Habermas’s distinction between the system and lifeworld. We examine system definitions of the nature of need, approved food choices, the reification of selected skills associated with household management and the imposition of a construct of virtue. While lifeworld truths about food insecurity include understandings of structural causes and recognition that the potential of social solidarity to respond to them exist, they are not engaged with by the system. The gap between system rationalities and the experiential nature of lay knowledge generates individual and collective disempowerment and a corrosive sense of shame. / NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH) (Grant Number IS-CLA-0113-10020).

No description available.

No description available.

Using a cross section data collected in 2005, this study uses both parametric and semi-parametric methods to investigate key factors associated with household vulnerability to drought and economic downturns from exposure to shocks in Niger, conditioned on household and community assets. The findings provides evidence that factors positively affecting ability to overcome drought and economic condition downturns are the educational levels of the heads of households, livestock ownership, access to income generating activity opportunities, and participation to government decision taking. Household size and dependency ratio are found to negatively impact household ability to cope or manage shocks. Descriptive statistics are also used to determine major shocks faced by households after the drought and common coping strategies after the shocks. The results show that the prevailing shock experienced by Niger's population (especially the rural population) in 2004/05 is drought, followed by important loss of agricultural products. The most common coping strategy employed after these shocks is food aid and receiving assistance from other households. / Master of Science