19 March 2013

UNRISD, Geneva

Stephen Devereux

Social protection and food security:

Two sides of the same coin?

Food Security at IDS

1980s

Food Security at IDS

1980s

Food Security at IDS

1990s

Food Security at IDS

1990s

Social Protection at IDS

2000s

Social Protection at IDS

2000s

Social Protection at IDS

2000s

Social Protection at IDS

2010s

CFS & HLPE

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) was reformed after the 2007/08 food price crisis.

The CFS constituted a High-Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to:

(i) assess and analyse the causes of food and nutrition insecurity

(ii) provide advice to member states on policy-relevant issues

(iii) help member states prioritise future actions to address food and nutrition insecurity.

HLPE Reports

2011

1. Price volatility2. Land tenure

2012

3. Climate change4. Social protection

2013

5. Biofuels6. Smallholder investment

2 reports each year.“Evidence-based”, “advocacy tools”.

What is “social protection for food security”?

Social protection is a range of policy instruments that address poverty and vulnerability, through:

social assistance (e.g. cash transfers or food aid)

social insurance (e.g. unemployment benefits, pensions)

social inclusion (e.g. legislation on the human right to food).

Food insecurity is the inability to secure an adequate diet today, and the risk of being unable to do so in the future.

“Social protection for food security” means using social protection instruments, programmes and systems to promote the human right to adequate food for all.

Rights to food and social protection

“The right to adequate food is realized when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement”.

“The right to social security includes the right to equal enjoyment of adequate protection from social risks and contingencies. ... social security should be treated as a social good, and not primarily as a mere instrument of economic or financial policy.”

(UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)

Social protection instruments for food security

Public works programmes

Temporary employment created in response to poverty and food insecurity caused by unemployment or under-employment.

Twin-track: (1) cash or food wages reduce short-term food insecurity; (2) investment in assets reduces chronic food insecurity

(e.g. feeder roads link isolated villages to markets).

Public works programmes

+ Public works target the poor – they are self-targeting.

+ Effective against shocks (e.g. floods and droughts) and seasonality, enabling consumption smoothing by food insecure households.

+ Can create useful infrastructure (e.g. rural roads and irrigation).

Public works programmes

– Work requirement reduces the nutritional value of food or cash.

– Ethics of paying low wages or food rations for self-targeting?

– Heavy labour excludes women and labour-constrained poor.

– Assets created often don’t benefit the poor, are low quality, and deteriorate if not maintained after the project ends.

Public works programmes

Apply decent work principles to public works programmes.

Pay local wage rates – use other methods for targeting.

Complement public works with unconditional transfers for people with no labour capacity; design lighter work (e.g. child-care) for women.

Involve communities in project selection; add a maintenance budget.

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs)

CCTs give cash to mothers/ care-givers in poor households, on condition they send their children to school and clinic, attend nutrition education, etc.

Twin-track:

(1) cash transfers reduce short-term food insecurity

(2) investing in children’s human capital breaks long-term intergenerational transmission of malnutrition + poverty.

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs)

+ CCTs can improve food security – quantity and quality of diets.

+ Higher levels of school attendance and immunisation rates.

+ CCTs generate stronger political support than unconditional grants.

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs)

– Conditionalities increase admin costs (monitoring compliance) + complexity.

– Education and health services might not be available, or low quality.

– Are conditions needed to achieve desired outcomes?

– Reinforces stereotyped gender roles.

– From a human rights perspective, it is defensible to attach conditions to social transfers that should be a right?

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs)

– Conditionalities increase admin costs (monitoring compliance) + complexity.

– Education and health services might not be available, or low quality.

– Are conditions needed to achieve desired outcomes?

– Reinforces stereotyped gender roles.

– From a human rights perspective, it is defensible to attach conditions to social transfers that should be a right?

– All cash transfers are vulnerable to food price seasonality and inflation.

Food price inflation in Ethiopia 1998–2008

Index–linked cash transfers in Malawi, 2006

From instruments to systems

Social protection is popular in principle, but most social protection instruments are controversial in practice.

Many criticisms of social protection programmes reflect bad design or weak implementation – so they can be improved.

Selecting instruments should follow a food security analysis and a needs assessment.

No single instrument is enough – a set of complementary interventions plus linkages to other sectors are needed to address all food needs.

Accountability mechanisms are crucial for effective implementation: – national level: a “social contract”– programme level: complaints mechanisms.

Bangladesh: Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction

Social protection systems: (1) Graduation

Ethiopia: Food Security Programme

Social protection systems: (1) Graduation

BrazilAdequate food is a right in the Constitution. “Organic Law for Food and Nutrition Security” (2006) is implemented through programmes like “Bolsa Familia” (CCT) and National School Meal Programme.

IndiaRights-based approach – e.g. National Food Security Bill. Also, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) guarantees 100 days of work at local minimum wage to all rural households, on demand – a radical shift from “food-for-work” to the “right to work”.

South Africa7 social grants underpinned by legislation. Civil society mobilised to extend grants from 7 to 18 years. Child Support Grant reaches 10 million children. Girls in pensioner households are 3cm taller.

Social protection systems: (2) Rights-based

Objective is to deliver two guarantees:(1) basic income security throughout the life cycle; (2) universal access to healthcare.

Two dimensions: (1) Horizontal = universal coverage; (2) Vertical = higher standards of provision.

Social protection systems: (3) Social Protection Floors

Social protection systems: (3) Social Protection Floors

CFS response to HLPE report

“The Committee ... suggested that the CFS Bureau, in consultation with

the Advisory Group and with the support of the Secretariat consider ...

further exploration of a way forward on integrating food security and nutrition issues in social protection floors, in consultation with

Rome-based Agencies and relevant organisations and entities, such as

the High-Level Task Force on Food Security (HLTF), the International

Labour Organization (ILO), the World Bank”.

Selected Recommendations

Every country should put in place a social protection system that contributes to the right to adequate food for all.

Social protection systems should follow a ‘twin-track’ strategy – provide short-term assistance + support to long-term livelihoods.

Social protection must address vulnerability to poverty and hunger – e.g. demand-driven; scalable (scales up rapidly when required).

Social protection for food security should be underpinned by the human rights to food and social protection – e.g. with a ‘framework law’ and with accountability mechanisms.

Social protection for food security should support agricultural livelihoods directly, because a large proportion of the world’s food insecure people earn their living from agriculture.

Thank you!

www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe

www.ids.ac.uk/go/centreforsocialprotection