Suchergebnisse

Sub-Saharan African cities in the late 1990s face a daunting set of problems including rapid growth, increasing poverty, deteriorating infrastructure, and inadequate capacity for service provision. However, even as a renewed debate is shaping up around issues of urban development, there is little attention given to the question of urban food security and nutrition. Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s, urban food problems in Africa commanded political attention, the nature of urban food insecurity in the 1990s is such that it has tended to lose political importance. This is largely because in the 1970s, the problem was one of outright food shortages and rapid price changes that affected large portions of the urban population simultaneously. The impact of structural adjustment, continued rapid growth, and an increase in urban poverty make food insecurity in the 1990s primarily a problem of access by the urban poor. Under circumstances where the urban poor spend a very large portion of their total income on food, urban poverty rapidly translates food insecurity. The lack of formal safety nets, and the shifting of responsibility for coping with food insecurity away from the state towards the individual and household level has tended to atomize and muffle any political response to this new urban food insecurity. This paper briefly reviews urban food insecurity and generates a set of empirical questions for an analysis of food and livelihood security in contemporary urban Sub-Saharan Africa, and then examines historical and contemporary evidence from Kampala, Uganda, and Accra, Ghana, to suggest some tentative conclusions. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1; MP-14; Theme 12 ; FCND

There has long been a tendency among policy researchers in food and agriculture to view ministries of finance and agriculture as their main, if not only, constituencies. This paper argues that greater insight that links the outcomes of research to real policy problems and processes makes for better scientific inquiry. The author contends that policy research needs to recognize multiple constituencies from the onset of the research process. This paper discusses requirements for effective policy research incorporating broad participation and ownership of the research process and presents this approach in the context of IFPRI's research on urban farming in Uganda and food insecurity awareness generation in Ghana. The benefits and implications for using this approach are highlighted. ; Non-PR ; IFPRI1

This book provides a critical introduction to the notion of humanitarianism in global politics, tracing the concept from its origins to the twenty-first century.

Conflict and disaster have been part of human history for as long as it has been recorded. Over time, more mechanisms for responding to crises have developed and become more systematized. Today a large and complex 'global humanitarian response system' made up of a multitude of local, national and international actors carries out a wide variety of responses. Understanding this intricate system, and the forces that shape it, are the core focus of this book. Daniel G Maxwell and Kirsten Gelsdorf highlight the origins, growth, and specific challenges to, humanitarian action and examine why the contemporary system functions as it does. They outline the main actors, explore how they are organised and look at the ways they plan and carry out their operations. Interrogating major contemporary debates and controversies in the humanitarian system, and the reasons why actions undertaken in its name remain the subject of so much controversy, they provide an important overview of the contemporary humanitarian system and the ways it may develop in the future. This book offers a nuanced understanding of the way humanitarian action operates in the 21st century. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in international human rights law, disaster management and international relations.

Introduction -- The problem of famines -- Somalia and external intervention in the Greater Horn of Africa: 1970-2010 -- The worsening crisis, the delay, and the impact of the famine -- "No one to cry to" : a Somali narrative of the famine -- Diversification, flexibility, and social connectedness: understanding the narratives -- The response of the (Western) international "humanitarian community" -- The shifting international dynamics of the humanitarian response -- 2012-14 and the aftermath of famine -- Preventing famine: an unfinished agenda?