ESS51-eng.docx
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5. What other policies are necessary to ensure
food security, and how can they be linked with national social protection floors?
There is also a set of “bigger picture” issues, which is a criticism that is sometimes
made against social protection generally, and specifically against social transfers such as cash transfers or food aid. Social transfers that are delivered to poor or food insecure
individuals and households individualise the problem of poverty or food insecurity, and “solve” it by providing compensatory transfers that aim to assure these individuals or
households a minimum level of subsistence. But these social transfers do little to address the structural causes of poverty and food insecurity.
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Similarly, the “right to food” and the “right to social security” also individualise the problems of food and income insecurity.
But some determinants of poverty, food insecurity and income insecurity are structural, and might be better addressed by interventions at the sectoral or macro-level
than the household or individual level. For instance, if food insecurity is a result of
market failures
rather than lack of income, then the appropriate intervention is on the supply side, not the demand side. Strengthening markets through investments in infrastructure, for
instance, might be more effective and “developmental” than cash or food transfers. This situation is common in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and partly explains the
popularity of public works programmes, which combine household-level transfers with investment in community-level assets
– short-term transfers of food rations or cash wages linked to the creation or maintenance of essential infrastructure, such as rural feeder roads
that connect isolated communities to markets and reduce transactions costs for traders. It follows that food security cannot be guaranteed through social protection measures
alone. If the right to food is to be guaranteed, national social protection floors must be linked to other policies and programmes that address deficits in food availability, access,
stability or utilisation.
5.1. Food availability
Food availability can be increased at household and national levels by raising
food production
, especially by ensuring that farmers have adequate, timely and affordable access to essential agricultural inputs, such as arable land and grazing land for agro-
pastoralists; irrigated water; fertiliser and seeds; and financial services e.g. seasonal input credit Table 1. To the extent that these policies are pro-poor and reduce food insecurity,
they can contribute directly to social protection objectives, even though they are not classified as social protection instruments.
Access to inputs is not only a technical or financial issue; it is often related to power imbalances, social exclusion and marginalisation. The solution in such circumstances is not
only to transfer resources e.g. by subsidising fertiliser prices or distributing input vouchers but to empower vulnerable people
– such as rural women – to claim the resources they need to pursue viable livelihoods that ensure their right to adequate food.
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Many social protection programmes do have direct linkages andor indirect multiplier effects that can impact on the structural determinants of poverty and food insecurity, but these outcomes are
secondary and do not affect the basic argument here.