Conflict, Food Insecurity, and Globalization

Ellen Messer, Marc. J. Cohen

International Food Policy Research Institute May 2006

We explore how globalization, broadly conceived to include international humanrights norms, humanitarianism, and alternative trade, might influence peaceful and foodsecure outlooks and outcomes. The paper draws on our previous work on conflict as a cause and effect of hunger and also looks at agricultural exports as war commodities. We review studies on the relationships between (1) conflict and food insecurity, (2) conflict and globalization, and (3) globalization and food insecurity. Next, we analyze countrylevel, historical contexts where export crops, such as coffee and cotton, have been implicated in triggering and perpetuating conflict. These cases suggest that it is not export cropping per se, but production and trade structures and food and financial policy contexts that determine peaceful or belligerent outcomes. Export cropping appears to contribute to conflict when fluctuating prices destabilize household and national incomes and when revenues fund hostilities. Also, in these scenarios, governments have not taken steps to progressively realize the right to adequate food or to reduce hunger and poverty. We conclude by exploring implications for agricultural development, trade, and humanrights policies.

Reproduced with permission from the International Food Policy Research Institute.


Download
http://www.ifpri.org

Institutional Flexibility In Crises And Post-Conflict Situations: Best Practices From The Field

OECD 2004

This study is a comparative analysis of the work of UNDP in eight post-conflict countries. It identifies emerging best practices and lessons learned in order to improve UNDP's organizational flexibility in responding quickly and effectively to the special challenges of post conflict rehabilitation. The report is also meant to support UNDP's institutional learning process and internal discussions about its response capacity. The study was not tasked with the responsibility of recommending broad structural changes to improve UNDP's flexible response. It was instead mandated to explore innovations and adaptations to maximize institutional flexibility within the constraints of the organizational structure as it currently exists and has come up with timely and valuable lessons for the organization and its partners.


http://www.oecd.org/

Land, Agricultural Change And Conflict In West Africa

Paul Richards and Jean Pierre Chauveau

OECD February 2007

This study identifies the hyper-mobility of impoverished rural youth as a common factor in armed conflicts across three neighbouring states (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cote d'Ivoire) in the Upper Guinean Forest region. Hyper-mobility can be defined as the inability to settle and forge stable attachments professionally and socially in either rural or urban settings. Hyper-mobile impoverished rural youth are not a sufficient cause of armed conflict, but their availability for recruitment when other employment opportunities fail is a major factor in fuelling insurgency in all three countries. Cutting off the supply of recruits to militia factions by providing more suitable employment opportunities attractive to these young people would contribute to peace and stability in West Africa.


http//www.oecd.org/publications/

Land, Violent Conflict and Development

Henri-Bernard Solignac Lecomte and Nicolas Pons-Vignon

OECD 2004/03/05

This paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing reflection on how to better integrate land policy and conflict prevention and mitigation by proposing steps towards a unified policy framework.


http//www.oecd.org/publications/

Armed Conflict, Refugees, And The Environment

Wendy Vanasselt

World Resources Institute (WRI) July 2003

A frequent byproduct of war and the refugees it creates is often significant environmental damage. War destroys the environment directly; it also takes a toll on environmental governance. Sometimes, however, the aftermath of a conflict can be an opportunity to strengthen environmental regimes.


http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.php?theme=10&fid=43

Child Refugees: Young & Vulnerable

Adriana Valencia

World Resources Institute (WRI) June 2001

Children comprise approximately half of the world's refugee population. Many of these children become orphans and suffer physical and emotional traumas that scar them for life. Armed conflict is the main driving force in the displacement of refugee populations - child or adult.


http://earthtrends.wri.org/features/view_feature.php?theme=4&fid=26

Child nutrition and food security during armed conflicts

FAO

This article is largely based on work carried out by Ms Jane MacAskill for FAO as part of the United Nations Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children, and her experiences in the Sudan and Somalia. For the United Nations study she undertook field visits to Liberia and the southern part of the Sudan and participated in drafting the final report. Her contribution is highly appreciated.


http://tinyurl.com/3fe78cf

Conflict in the Ogaden and its Regional Dimension

Sally Healy

Chatham House Sept. 2007

"The facts around food security and human rights are contested and framed, too narrowly, for political ends. Are people being killed or not? Are people dying of starvation or not?"


http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/530/

From Conflict to Peacebuilding: the Role of Natural Resources and the Environment

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Share The World's Resources 2009/03/12

Since 1990 at least 18 violent conflicts have been fuelled by exploitation and competition over natural resources. The United Nations should integrate strategies of sharing natural resources to ensure post-conflict peace and security.


http://www.stwr.org/global-conflicts-militarization/from-conflict-to-peacebuilding-the-role-of-natural-resources-and-the-environment.html

World Water Day: Thirstier World Likely to See More Violence

Stephen Leahy

Share The World's Resources 2007/03/18

A strong link between droughts and violent civil conflicts in the developing world bodes ill for an increasingly thirsty world, say scientists, who warn that drought-related conflicts are expected to multiply with advancing climate change.


http://www.stwr.org/global-conflicts-militarization/world-water-day-thirstier-world-likely-to-see-more-violence.html

India's Agrarian Crisis: No End To Farmers Suicides

Devinder Sharma

Share The World's Resources 2004/06/07

The ongoing agricultural crisis has resulted in numerous suicides in India. Devinder Sharma analyses the structural causes and the possible solutions.


http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/indias-agrarian-crisis-no-end-to-farmers-suicides.html

UN Expert Decries 'Assassination' By Hunger Of Milions Of Children

Jean Ziegler, UN

Share The World's Resources 2005/10/29

The world's agricultural production should be able to feed 12 billion people, but globally, 852 million are consistently undernourished, 100,000 people die of hunger every day, and a child under 10 years of age dies every 5 seconds, Mr. Ziegler told a press conference. He called this a daily massacre of human beings through malnutrition.


http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/un-expert-decries-assassination-by-hunger-of-milions-of-children.html

World Food Program Chief: conquering hunger critical to future peace, prosperity

WFP

Share The World's Resources 2007/03/18

James T. Morris, Executive Director of WFP, told a US Senate hearing on food aid Thursday that conquering hunger was critical to achieving peace and prosperity in the future.


http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/world-food-program-chief-conquering-hunger-critical-to-future-peace-prosperity.html

Rural Women in Sri Lanka's Post-conflict Rural Economy

Leelangi Wanasundera

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2006

This publication presents the findings of a study supported by FAO and designed and implemented by the Centre for Women's Research, Sri Lanka. The publication reviews and analyses, using a gender approach, the challenges to rural livelihood in a society torn by conflict and where the productive assets have been destroyed. The publication also analyses the various efforts of development agencies, both international and national, to address gender differentiated needs of local communities trying to rebuild their lives.


Download

Armed Conflicts and Food Security

Slobodanka B. Teodosijevic

Agricultural and Development Economics Division - FAO June 2003

Despite the end of the Cold War conflicts are still very frequent and most of them occur in developing countries. However, the nature of conflicts has changed and the proportion of civilian fatalities has increased markedly. The human, social and economic costs of armed conflict are massive. GDP per-capita is estimated to decline by about 2.2 % per year during conflict, with sectors which have high transaction costs hit more severely. Although the agricultural sector is typically less affected than industry per-capita agricultural production falls by about 1.5 % per year in periods of conflict. Food production is usually reduced, and in some cases collapses, leading to hunger and starvation and forcing large numbers of people to migrate. Food aid buffers food-intake levels to some extent but calorie availability per-capita-per-day does fall by an average of about 7 percent as a result of conflict. The destruction of rural infrastructure, the loss of livestock, deforestation, the widespread use of land-mines as well as the population movements lead to long-term food security problems, particularly when these factors interact with natural disasters. Subsistence farming, crop diversification, divestment and migration are some of the survival strategies that people resort to.


Download


About Global Food Security

There are more than 1.02 billion hungry people in the world
Source:FAO 2010

Providing global food security is one of the principle challenges for humanity in current times. The scale of the challenge is immense. According to an FAO estimate over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. One sixth of all humanity currently goes hungry every day. This is a challenge that has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. There are more people hungry today than at any time since 1970.

Malnutrition has also been growing since the mid-1990s, and in 2008 was affecting approximately 915 million people. These trends are expected to worsen given high food prices, and structural issues relating to the recent downturn in the global economy.

> More
The work of The Network of European Foundations' Mercator Fund is underpinned by the principle that the global philanthropic community has a vital role to play in promoting and implementing the work necessary to bring about social and political change. The Mercator Fund aims to generate innovative ideas to respond to key global challenges through the development of projects that address core global social issues.
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust is one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, and has played a pioneering role in changing the traditional ideas of charity and introducing the concept of philanthropy. Through its grant making, the Trust supports efforts in the development of society, through institutional grants in areas of Education, Health, Arts & Culture, Enhancing Civil Society & Governance and Rural Livelihoods & Communities. Besides institutional grants, the Trust also makes individual grants for education and medical relief.
Nearly 70% of the tribal communities of India reside in central India, concentrated in about 110 districts within the nine central Indian states. The region is endowed with rich natural resources; however, issues such as abject poverty, primitive farming methods, improper use of water resources, naxalism, etc. ensure that this tribal belt lags behind other parts of India. Central India Initiative, one of the flagship initiatives of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, was initiated in 2004, with the basic objective of enhancing tribal livelihoods through a Natural Resource Management (NRM) based approach. Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a registered organization seeded by the Trust, is the nodal agency for the Central India Initiative.
ICOS ICOS is an independent international organisation providing local solutions to tackle new global challenges. Through an innovative combination of research, analysis and project implementation, ICOS examines the root causes of current challenges to achieve measurable and direct results.