Save the Children 30 April 2012 LH FINAL

8/2/2019 Save the Children 30 April 2012 LH FINAL

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Save the Children

meeting 30 April, London

Hunger and Undernutrition Reduction:

Overcoming Disconnects and Neglect

Lawrence Haddad

Institute of Development Studies


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Outline

Connecting agriculture andundernutrition

Overcoming neglect of hunger andundernutrition


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Why doesnt agriculture do more toreduce undernutrition?

In terms of the productive sectors, agricultural growthtends to be a more integral part of nutrition-sensitive

development than nonagricultural growth, but the effect

of agricultural growth on nutrition is conditional upon thesize of the sector, the extent to which food insecurity isa problem, and the extent to which agricultural growth

delivers increased food availability. The main exception

to this statement is that the result does not appear toapply in India.

(An econometric study)

Headey 2011. Turning Economic Growth into Nutrition-Sensitive

Growth . IFPRI.


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Successes in fighting undernutrition

Headey 2011


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Failures in addressing undernutrition

Headey 2011


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Reasons for disconnects

Agriculture not a big enough sector

Not generating enough income and employment forthe poorest

Not enough of an incentive for agriculture to focus onnutrition

Where there is a focus on nutrition, it is ineffective

Maybe it is having an impact, but we cannot isolate it

due to weak impact culture in agriculture

Poor enabling environment overwhelms agriculturesefforts, e.g. womens empowerment, watsan, health,political priorities


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Invest in Less Favoured or More Favoured Agricultural Land?It depends what the objective is


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Systematic Review of Agricultural Interventionsthat do try to improve nutrition status

23 studies found

13 collected heights and weights of children

8 investigated differences between control andproject

1/8 had a positive significant impact on stunting, 3/8on underweight and 2/8 on wasting

Half of the studies in which no significant differentwas found did not have large enough sample sizes todetect a difference if it existed!

Masset, Haddad, Cornelius, Isaza-Castro BMJ 2012


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Invest in new technologies and farmingmethods to leverage better nutrition?


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Does access to farm inputs favour men?

Source: Peterman, Behrman and Quisumbing, 2010. IFPRI Discussion Paper 975

Number of studies

Prioritising the needs of women farmers


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But how to promote the power andinfluence of women within agriculture?

Within agriculture?

Extension agents?

National agricultural research systems?

Crop choice?

Outside of agriculture?

Village councils?

The courts?

Policy?


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Making hunger and

undernutrition harder to neglect Outcomes

Real time mapping

Commitment

Measuring commitment

Leadership

Wait or Develop?


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Undernourishment data:Crisis, What Crisis?

Source: Oxfam (2010) Data cited from FAO Hunger Statistics (from 1969 to 2006); UN (2009)

2007-08Food pricespike

Millions


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Comparison of Household Survey and FAO

estimates of food energy deficiency, 1990s

8275 73 73

60

52

45 44 4440

44

66

32

45

63

15

31

4743

21

Ethiopia

Burun

di

Malaw

i

Zam

bia

Mozamb

ique

Ghana

Guin

ea

Tanzania

Kenya

Ugand

a

Household Survey FAO

Spearman rank=0.43

(p=0.21)

Food Insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Estimates from Household Expenditure

Surveys Lisa C. Smith Harold Alderman and Dede Aduayom. Research Report 146. 2003.


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Efforts to monitor hunger must be revitalised

http://www.rapidsms.org/case-

studies/malawi-nutritional-surviellence/

h d d h ?


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Who is most committed to reducing hunger?Country Government

expenditure rankPolicies and

programmes rankHRCI

(1 is best)

Denmark 3 4 1Finland 6 9 2

Belgium 9 7 3Ireland 5 11 3Norway 2 15 5France 11 6 5United Kingdom 14 3 5Australia 16 2 8

Netherlands 10 88Spain 4 14 8

Germany 12 10 11South Korea 23 1 12Japan 8 17 13Canada 13 13 14Greece 21 5 14

Sweden 7 19 14Italy 22 12 17USA 18 18 18Austria 20 16 18Switzerland 15 22 20New Zealand 17 20 20Portugal 19 21 22

Source: IDS at www.hrcindex.org


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Commitment and hunger status?

HUNGER STATUS (GHI 2010)

COMMITMENT Low Moderate Serious Alarming Extremely

Alarming

Low Rwanda

Nepal Mozambique

Lesotho Guinea

BissauZambia

Bangladesh

Medium Ghana Kenya India Burundi

China NigeriaSenegal

High Malawi

Brazil Guatemala Ethiopia

Gambia TanzaniaUganda


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Citizen Feedback: Are Anti-Hunger Efforts Working?

Randomised control trial of community-based monitoringof public primary health care providers in Uganda

Citizen report cards reduced child mortality by 33 percent

The study documents large increases in utilisationand improved health outcomes

Cost per child death averted was $300, well below the

average of $887 for 23 other interventions.

Bjrkman, M and Svensson, J. (2009) 'Power to the People: Evidence from a Randomized Field

Experiment on Community Based Monitoring in Uganda, The Quarterly Journal of Economics,

Vol 124: 2, pp 73569


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Improving nutrition for all.

The Access to Nutrition Index is agroundbreaking initiative that rates food and

beverage companies' performance in

providing nutritious products to consumers.

The Access to Nutrition Index is

currently being developed.

Sign up to stay informed or Discover

more about the Index.

Supported by:

Accountability in theprivate sector


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Mejia-Acosta et.

al. 2012


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Leadership?

April 2012


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Conclusions

Agriculture is potentially vitalto hunger and undernutritionreduction - but it needs to bea more powerful force

Several ways of makinghunger and undernutritionharder to ignore suggested

Strong political courage andleadership is needed toreduce hunger

Save the Children 30 April 2012 LH FINAL

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