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On the Edge: The Role of Food-based Safety Nets in Helping Vulnerable Households Manage Food Insecurity

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Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure

Part of the book series: Studies in Development Economics and Policy ((SDEP))

Abstract

This is the opening paragraph of Ravallion (2003) and seems to condemn all safety nets, whether transferred in food or cash, as putting brakes on the economic development process. But as Ravallion demonstrates, a wide body of evidence now exists that indicates there are many circumstances in which safety nets, as part of carefully planned social protection policies, can be a springboard for the poor to escape poverty. Ravallion identifies a number of reasons why the trade-off between economic growth and lower inequality fostered by public transfers may be a false one. The most fundamental of which is the existence of the human basal metabolic rate — without an adequate food energy intake to support the functioning of the human body at rest, there can be no productive activity at all. Thus, transfers that ensure beneficiaries can meet at least some measure above minimum energy requirements are essential if people are to contribute to economic growth.

The conventional wisdom in mainstream development policy circles is that income transfers to the poor, and safety net policies more generally, are at best a short-term palliative and at worst a waste of money. They are not seen as a core element of an effective long-term poverty reduction strategy.

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Authors
  1. Lynn Brown
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  2. Ugo Gentilini
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-WIDER, UK

    Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis (Project Director and Senior Research Fellow) (Project Director and Senior Research Fellow)

  2. Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur, India

    Shabd S. Acharya (Honorary Professor, Vice President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and President of the Agricultural Economics Research Association of India.) (Honorary Professor, Vice President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and President of the Agricultural Economics Research Association of India.)

  3. Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), Rome, Italy

    Benjamin Davis

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© 2007 United Nations University

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Brown, L., Gentilini, U. (2007). On the Edge: The Role of Food-based Safety Nets in Helping Vulnerable Households Manage Food Insecurity. In: Guha-Khasnobis, B., Acharya, S.S., Davis, B. (eds) Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure. Studies in Development Economics and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230589506_4

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