Showing papers in "Canadian Journal of Development Studies in 1998"
TL;DR: The Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) as discussed by the authors was created as a vehicle for food citizenship, emphasizing the need to move beyond food as a commodity and people as consumers, and emphasizing the loss of food skills within the public, and the limits of anti-hunger advocacy or charity for achieving food security.
Abstract: The Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC) was created in 1990 as a vehicle for “food citizenship.” Its creators challenged the assumptions that hunger was mainly a problem of income and that the food system was nourishing all Canadians adequately. Working from a vision of food security based on both social justice and environmental sustainability, the TFPC was designed to be multi-sectoral and cross-jurisdictional, and to support project innovation and policy advocacy. The paper develops the concept of “food citizenship,” emphasizing the need to move beyond food as a commodity and people as consumers. Critiques of corporate control and a loss of food skills, or “de-skilling,” within the public, and the limits of anti-hunger advocacy, or charity for achieving food security are offered.
147 citations
TL;DR: The World Food Summit (WFS) as mentioned in this paper was the 12th international conference held under United Nations auspices since 1990, which endorsed the Rome Declaration on World Food Security and Plan of Action to achieve food security for all.
Abstract: Organized by FAO, the World Food Summit—twelfth international conference held under United Nations auspices since 1990—took place in November 1996 in an atmosphere of widespread skepticism. Over two decades after the 1974 World Food Conference, the Summit's Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action substantively reaffirmed the international community's commitment to eradicate hunger affecting more than 800 million people worldwide. Although it specifically pledged to halve the number of undernourished people by the year 2015, the Summit avoided the issue of institutional reform of a system in which more than 30 UN bodies are involved. It was a costly and ineffective way to bring coherence to an over-complex system that tries to achieve food security for all. This paper makes some suggestions for achieving that goal.
45 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that income increases controlled by women have a greater impact on household food security, child health and schooling than those controlled by men, and different approaches can be taken to make the design of agricultural projects gender-sensitive.
Abstract: Women in developing countries play a crucial role in meeting the food and nutrition needs of their families through the “three pillars” of food security—food production, economic access to food, and nutrition security. Empirical evidence shows that income increases controlled by women have a greater impact on household food security, child health and schooling than those controlled by men. Despite women's importance, they are constrained by lower access to land, credit and extension advice, as well as by domestic responsibilities. These constraints have consequences for productivity, efficiency and environmental sustainability. To address these, different approaches can be taken to make the design of agricultural projects gender-sensitive.
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a pilot study of a sample of agro-industrial enterprises in Tanzania gives some insight into the purchasers and managers of newly privatized firms, the estimated economic viability of these firms, and the problems and level of investment associated with the privatization process.
Abstract: Much has been written about the benefits of privatization; however, in countries with low per capita incomes and with slow or no growth recently, most local residents do not have the capital or expertise needed to acquire parastatals. Who then is buying enterprises formerly owned by government? This pilot study of a sample of agro-industrial enterprises in Tanzania gives some insight into the purchasers and managers of newly privatized firms, the estimated economic viability of these firms, and the problems and level of investment associated with the privatization process. The firms, which had been privatized for at least three years, were located in the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro region of the country. The study also reveals information on the government's progress in privatization, a government that had a strong carry-over of socialist indoctrination and that is struggling with changes in commercial laws to allow competition to flourish at the same time it is encouraging privatization. Tanzania's e...
29 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors conducted a qualitative study using taped focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews to explain how and why food insecurity occurs in families in Quebec City and found that food insecurity can be explained both by elements of risks and by the capacity to face those risks.
Abstract: SUMMARY To explain how and why food insecurity occurs in families in our society, we conducted a qualitative study using taped focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews. Data were gathered in 1996 through a purposive sample study of 98 members of low-income and very low-income households in twelve urban and rural municipalites in and around Quebec City. A questionnaire on socio-demographic characteristics and the Radimer/Cornell Hunger and Food Insecurity Measures Index were also administered to respondents. Based on an analysis of the content of the data, we constructed a model depicting major elements of vulnerability to food insecurity. Analysis of these elements showed that the food insecurity of a household can be explained both by elements of risks and by the capacity to face those risks. Within the range of income levels examined, significant risks included lack of income; living in an apartment or in an urban area; underlying problems related to means of livelihood, including chronic ...
28 citations
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a dynamic general equilibrium model based on intertemporally optimizing agents is used to study alternative debt management policies for the Turkish economy, which is based on the neoclassical growth theory in its adjustment to steady state dynamics, and on Walrasian general equilibrium theory of a small open economy in attaining equilibrium in its commodity and factor markets.
Abstract: We use a dynamic general equilibrium model based on intertemporally optimizing agents to study alternative debt management policies for the Turkish economy. The model is based on the neoclassical growth theory in its adjustment to steady state dynamics, and on Walrasian general equilibrium theory of a small open economy in attaining equilibrium in its commodity and factor markets. Key features of the model are its explicit recognition of the distortionary consequences of excessive borrowing requirements of the public sector through increased domestic interest costs; and endogenous determination of the private work force participation decisions in response to changing tax incidences. The model results suggest that reliance on indirect taxes, as in the current stance of the fiscal authority, has appealing results in terms of attaining fiscal targets, yet it suffers from distortionary consequences and loss of economic welfare.
18 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the extent to which defence expenditures have affected the borrowing decisions of the government of Pakistan is analyzed and it appears that international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may be increasingly inclined to restrict lending to countries with high levels of defence expenditures.
Abstract: This analysis shows the extent to which defence expenditures have affected the borrowing decisions of the government of Pakistan. Has the government resorted to increased borrowing in these markets to expand allocations to the military? Or, in contrast, have increased defence expenditures tended to restrict access to external credit? Weapons purchased with scarce foreign exchange lead to the availability of fewer resources for the import of investment goods essential for self-sustaining growth. On the one hand, external financing of defence expenditures would reduce the short-run sacrifices often associated with military expenditures. On the other hand, it appears that international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may be increasingly inclined to restrict lending to countries with high levels of defence expenditures.
16 citations
TL;DR: The paper addresses the complex interrelationships between food security, nutritional status and health, and emphasis on qualitative food security stimulates the approaches of food systems to nutritional improvement.
Abstract: SUMMARY The paper addresses the complex interrelationships between food security, nutritional status and health. Food insecurity is an important factor in malnutrition, but to reduce malnutrition, nutritional security should also improve. This means that better food security must be combined with actions that enhance nutrition-relevant practices and care, as well as access to health services. Food security itself goes beyond access to enough food. It encompasses access to sufficiently diversified foods for an adequate nutrient mix, in addition to safe and culturally acceptable foods. The strategic importance of these qualitative aspects of food security are strategically important. They permit a better under-standing of food security issues where poor people may have enough to eat but lack access to an adequate diet, whether in the first or third world. Emphasis on qualitative food security stimulates the approaches of food systems to nutritional improvement, notably for the reduction of micro-nutrient de...
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined some of the determinants of fertility in three fairly homogenous states in northern India and found that scheduled tribe status, though not the scheduled caste status, has a substantial negative effect on fertility.
Abstract: This paper examines some of the determinants of fertility in three fairly homogenous states in northern India. The results show that scheduled tribe status—though not the scheduled caste status—has a substantial negative effect on fertility. The results also provide strong support for the view that improving the position of women through more equitable social and economic development will have a far greater impact on fertility reduction than will the provision of family planning services. Finally, the results provide indirect support for the view that increased income leads to increased fertility and that children are not “inferior goods.”
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors pointed out that the market is becoming the dominant mode of regulation in the food trade and that new risks to food security associated with the appearance of new uncertainties or with the worsening of existing weaknesses are emerging because of specific liberalization measures.
Abstract: SUMMARY As a result of neo-liberal globalization, especially structural adjustment plans, the market is becoming the dominant mode of regulation in the food trade. In landlocked southern countries, the lifting of trade barriers—the state's protective mechanisms—are now giving way to “imperfect” agri-food markets that have been corrupted by many power struggles. We are witnessing a declining independence of supply in many countries that previously aspired to self-sufficiency, and a de-territoralization based on potentially risky comparative advantages. While the decline of planned economies and the devaluation of currency does have some positive impact, new risks to food security associated with the appearance of new uncertainties or with the worsening of existing weaknesses are emerging because of specific liberalization measures. While the advanced state has shown its limits, the market cannot solve all the problems of individuals' physical and economic access to food in landlocked countries or in societ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the various factors that affect the investments of private companies in the tradeable and non-tradeable sectors and found that a regressive redistribution did not affect the tradeability sector.
Abstract: Contrary to the predictions of structural adjustment policies, the opening up of Turkey to the external market has increased profits in the tradeable sector more rapidly than in the non-tradeable one. This article examines the various factors that affect the investments of private companies in the tradeable and non-tradeable sectors. The analysis of the relationship between the redistribution of incomes and investment decisions shows that a regressive redistribution did not affect the tradeable sector. The author suggests that a progressive redistribution could have a positive impact on the growth of investments in the non-tradeable sector.
TL;DR: The authors identify problematic elements in the literature on the ivory trade during the late 19th century and propose an alternate approach that draws on insights from economic anthropology and history. But their approach is limited to the Eastern Congo.
Abstract: This paper identifies problematic elements in the literature on the ivory trade during the late 19th century and proposes an alternate approach that draws on insights from economic anthropology and history. It suggests ways in which various groups, both African and external, participated in the ivory trade. This participation grew out of differing beliefs about the power of trade to bring about economic, social and political change. While late 19th-century British debates about trade with Africa had no direct counterpart in the African communities involved in the ivory trade, the changing nature and meaning of trade and trade goods produced a variety of contending political, social and economic options. An examination of these beliefs about trade, focusing on the Eastern Congo, offers an interesting point of comparison with contemporary debates about the power of appropriately structured trade to transform Africa.
TL;DR: The existence of the right to food, as a moral and legal concept, has been debated for more than half a century and the obligations imposed on state governments by food rights are hotly contested.
Abstract: The existence of the right to food, as a moral and legal concept, has been debated for more than half a century. In light of international treaty and non-treaty istruments, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make the case that food rights are not principles of international law. This does not, however, mean that food rights are easily defined or that their content is universally known. Furthermore, the obligations imposed on state governments by food rights is hotly contested. This paper explores, from a legal perspective, the development of food rights, how the World Food Summit advanced the legal framework for food rights and their implementation, and some of the obstacles that are still in the way of the full implementation of food rights worldwide.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the factors that prevented the poor from participating in the growth process and obtain insights into the persistence of poverty in the state of Maharashtra using the ICRISAT panel survey for 1979-84.
Abstract: Using the ICRISAT panel survey for Maharashtra for 1979–84, a period of rapid growth in farm and non-farm activities, an attempt is made to analyse the factors that prevented the poor from participating in the growth process. Thus insights into the persistence of poverty are obtained. Limited endowments of the poor, specifically land and education, and their failure to benefit adequately from them tend to perpetuate their poverty. Despite some weakening over time, caste barriers continue to perpetuate the poverty of low-caste households. Education has a key role in helping them overcome their poverty by raising farm and non-farm earnings, lowering dependency burden and weakening caste barriers to economic mobility. The preoccupation with trickle down mechanisms is limiting, if not misleading as it risks overemphasizing allocative efficiency to the neglect of more fundamental concerns relating to the endowments of the poor and how to augment them, and ensuring that they benefit adequately from the...
TL;DR: Subsidiarity means more than developing national action plans to implement international development targets: it is potentially more open, participatory, subversive and deviant as mentioned in this paper. But it is also problematic conceptually, and routinely overambitious in practice.
Abstract: International development targets adopted by UN conferences provide political impetus, focus expenditure and help monitor progress. However, simple targets can misrepresent complex realities and distort policy. Monitoring targets can have a high opportunity cost. Political impetus can be lost if targets are over-ambitious. Food security illustrates the uses of targets and the risks involved. Simple hunger or nutrition targets have been attractive to policy makers but have been problematic conceptually, and routinely overambitious in practice. Greater subsidiarity may be the answer, with simple international targets being used as a platform for local action. Subsidiarity means more than developing national action plans to implement international targets: it is potentially more open, participatory, subversive and deviant.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a method for assessing household food insecurity, which is based on the households' own description of their conditions, using a household questionnaire and a quasi-expert system.
Abstract: This paper describes a method for assessing household food insecurity. The method determines the level of current food insecurity experienced by individual households, whether they are at risk of food insecurity in the short term and whether they are likely to experience improving or worsening food insecurity in the long term. The method, which is based on the households' own description of their conditions, uses a household questionnaire and a quasi-expert system. The quasi-expert system greatly increases the speed of assessment because the questionnaire and the analysis are developed simultaneously. To date, the method has been used to survey and describe household food security in six developing countries. The method and the results of these applications are discussed in this paper.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a discursive critique of the conventional processes for the delivery of education in Africa and call for a re-examination of the fundamental ways in which the structures for teaching, learning and administration of education can serve the needs of local people and communities.
Abstract: This theoretical paper discusses the challenges of promoting genuine educational reforms and options in Africa. The author presents a discursive critique of the conventional processes for the delivery of education in calling for a re-examination of the fundamental ways in which the structures for teaching, learning and administration of education can serve the needs of local people and communities. Part of the problem of African development is the failure of so-called development initiatives to speak to African realities and conditionalities. Educational change in Africa must connect academic and research scholarship with practical local engagement for a genuinely African-centred development. Specifically, an African-centred development would require that formal and informal educational systems interrogate and use the positive (solution-oriented) aspects of the local cultural resource base of African people fo their contributions to the development process. The task of educational transformation ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the possible evolution of the level and variability of world market prices of basic food commodities as a result of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and other developments under way.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the possible evolution of the level and variability of world market prices of basic food commodities as a result of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture and other developments under way. Policy options available to developing countries to support food production and to safeguard against market instability are identified, and suggestions are made on how the international community can support these efforts. Overall, existing flexibility in the Agreement on Agriculture allows developing countries to pursue policies in support of domestic food production and consumption and to mitigate the effects of possible world price instability Some remaining problems must be addressed during the continuation of the reform process under the World Trade Organization, scheduled to be initiated in 1999.
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed case study of Al-Alkhalaf, a village in the southwestern highlands of Asir, as an example of the difficulties planners face.
Abstract: Despite a crucial need of a sustainable natural resource management program in isolated rural areas of Saudi Arabia, current government approaches have not been successful to develop a level of local participation. This paper offers a detailed case study of Al-Alkhalaf, a village in the southwestern highlands of Asir, as an example of the difficulties planners face. Economic change and central-government policies of the last thirty years have transformed the traditional socio-economic structures of the village once, based on the reclamation of land for agriculture and the sustained development of local forests to meet subsistence needs, to the presently based on migration—in search for education and job opportunities and heavily dependent on government support. Today, Al-Alkhalaf is caught between the past and the present competing socio-economic hierarchies. To gain local cooperation in developing new patterns of sustainable resource use, innovative steps must be taken to facilitate local partic...
TL;DR: The need for a strong, multilateral exchange system for genetic resources, under intergovernmental control, has been highlighted by as mentioned in this paper, who argue that the predatory nature of intellectual property on the rights and knowledge of farmers and indigenous peoples underscores the need to strengthen inter-governmental control over the crop germplasm held in trust under the auspices of the United Nations.
Abstract: In recent years, intellectual property systems have been expanded and strengthened to give the life industry greater control over seeds and genetic material. Life patenting undermines conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and threatens world food security. The predatory nature of intellectual property on the rights and knowledge of farmers and indigenous peoples underscores the need for a strong, multilateral exchange system for genetic resources, under intergovernmental control. Steps must be taken to strengthen intergovernmental control over the crop germplasm held “in trust” under the auspices of the United Nations and to prohibit intellectual property claims on this material.
TL;DR: The promotion of national integrity is an integral process in successfully implementing public sector reforms, especially those targeted at minimizing corruption as mentioned in this paper, and efforts to promote sustainable and equitable development are undermined if levels of integrity are not enhanced and corruption reduced.
Abstract: The promotion of national integrity is an integral process in successfully implementing public sector reforms, especially those targeted at minimizing corruption. Efforts to promote sustainable and equitable development are undermined if levels of integrity are not enhanced and corruption reduced. While each country and region is unique in its history and culture, political system, and stage of economic and social development, similarities in national integrity systems exist and lessons learned are often transferable. Furthermore, the promotion of a national integrity system and the fight against corruption must be as politically inclusive and citizen-friendly as circumstances allow.
TL;DR: The authors showed that the economy of Guyana contracted substantially during the period of Socialist development and dirigisme, and since the implementation of an IMF and World Bank structural adjustment program, there has been growth.
Abstract: This paper shows that the economy of Guyana contracted substantially during the period of Socialist development and dirigisme. Since the implementation of an IMF and World Bank structural adjustment program, however, there has been growth. With the liberalization of producer prices, particularly rice prices, there has been robust economic growth in the rice sector. The econometric evidence reveals strong acreage and output responsiveness of rice to price, supporting the view that farmers are responsive to price incentives, and demonstrating the need for “market-friendly policies” and “getting prices right” in third world countries.
TL;DR: The Quest for Food Security in the Twenty-First Century as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the area of food security in the twenty-first century, with a focus on Canada.
Abstract: (1998). The Quest for Food Security in the Twenty-First Century. Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d'etudes du developpement: Vol. 19, The Quest for Food Security in the Twenty-First Century, pp. 9-20.
TL;DR: The IFPRI's 2020 Vision initiative has identified six priority areas of action: (i) strengthen the capacity of developing country governments; (ii) invest in the productivity of low-income people; (iii) strengthen agricultural research and extension systems; (iv) promote sustainable agricultural intensification with sound management of natural resources; (v) develop efficient, effective and low-cost agricultural markets; and (vi) expand international cooperation and assistance, and improve its efficiency and effectiveness as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Prospects for a food-secure world will remain bleak if the global community continues with business as usual. However, with foresight and decisive action to improve both availability of food and access to food, global food security can be assured. IFPRI's 2020 Vision initiative has identified six priority areas of action: (i) strengthen the capacity of developing-country governments; (ii) invest in the productivity of low-income people; (iii) strengthen agricultural research and extension systems; (iv) promote sustainable agricultural intensification with sound management of natural resources; (v) develop efficient, effective and low-cost agricultural markets; and (vi) expand international cooperation and assistance, and improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest some tools for conceptualizing the issues to aid in the development of appropriate strategies for confronting this urgent reality, and to facilitate the formation of social policy from below.
Abstract: With the globalization of world economies, development of social policy has also become transnational. In light of the devastating human consequences of globalization and the ineffectiveness of ameliorative efforts rooted in neoliberal “economic correctness,” effective leadership is most likely to come from those rooted in popular struggles. To create a countervailing force to the global hegemony of neoliberalism, popular organizations are recognizing that they must also think and work transnationally. We suggest some tools for conceptualizing the issues to aid in the development of appropriate strategies for confronting this urgent reality, and to facilitate the formation of social policy from below.
TL;DR: The more commonly cited threats endangering Canadian national security today include: terror-ism, trade in illicit drugs and rise of organized crime, underdevelopment, poverty, mass involuntary migration, spread of infectious diseases like AIDS, ecological degradation and scarcity, human rights abuses, overpopulation, ethnic conflict, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and refugees as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The more commonly cited threats endangering Canadian national security today include: terror-ism, trade in illicit drugs and rise of organized crime, underdevelopment, poverty, mass involuntary migration, spread of infectious diseases like AIDS, ecological degradation and scarcity, human rights abuses, overpopulation, ethnic conflict, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and refugees. A careful reading of where most of these “threats” originate reveals a fundamental realignment in Canada's international security agenda from East-West to North-South determinants of world (dis)order. It is argued that the Southern dimensions of threats discourse sustain expenditures on national defence at a time when there is no immediate military challenge to Canada's security.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors tried through highlights of the different determinants of intraregional trade to show that effective regional cooperation is an important factor to promote trade between developing countries, and to determine why and how the UEMOA could be the cornerstone of sustainable development in West Africa.
Abstract: Since 1993, the prospects of intraregional trade in West Africa have been the subject of much debate. On the one hand, Foroutan and Pritchett (1993) explain the low level of trade between sub-Saharan African countries by structural factors; on the other hand, Naudet (1993) shows that trade growth potential is important between West African countries. This debate is even more important because the seven countries that form the UEMOA have reasserted their willingness to strengthen their economic relationship in January 1994. This article tries through highlights of the different determinants of intraregional trade to show that effective regional cooperation is an important factor to promote trade between developing countries, and to determine why and how the UEMOA could be the cornerstone of sustainable development in West Africa.