National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening Programme

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National Food Policy Capacity Strengthening
Programme
Food Security A Benchmark Survey of the
Literature Relevant to Bangladesh J. Mohan
RAO Advisor to FAO and Professor of
Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
MA, USA Workshop on INFORMED POLICY MAKING FOR
FOOD SECURITY Research in support of the
National Food Policy 5-6 December, 2007
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A Benchmark Survey of the Literature

• (BMS)
• A benchmark compendium of food security related
  research complemented by an extensive
  bibliography

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• I. AIMS and METHODS
• of
• BMS

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AIMS

• To help decision-makers in identifying research
  gaps and, hence, priorities
• To serve researchers as a reference tool

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Research and policy documents on Bangladesh,
  whether carried out in or outside the country
• Research on other countries of policy,
  substantive, or methodological relevance to the
  Bangladesh case
• Bibliography from 1975 to 2007 but Survey largely
  confined to last 7-8 years

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RELATION TO RND (Research Needs Digest)

• RND informed by a select bibliography and brief
  review of research confined to Bangladesh
• BMS based on spatially wide temporally deep
  literature search (1,441 titles)
• Organized into themes or clusters that follow but
  do not necessarily coincide with the RND Key
  Clusters

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WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO LEARN FROM THE BMS

• Focus on major research-based policy conclusions
  and perspectives
• Distilled comparative experiences and lessons for
  Bangladesh food policy
• Summary statements of research methods of
  potential use by researchers/research
  institutions in Bangladesh

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SOME LIMITATIONS

• While the Bib. is quite extensive, no claim is
  made that the Survey itself is exhaustive
• A Dimensional perspective but not necessarily
  exhaustive at thematic level
• Focus areas are intersections between the RNDs
  research priorities and the literature itself.
  But the literature is not equally rich in all
  areas
• Selection of individual items covered was guided
  by the abstracts and/or by quick first readings

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• II. PERSPECTIVE
• and
• FOCUS

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PERSPECTIVE

• Individual items reviewed (123 of 1441) were
  selected with the object of achieving a
  dimensional perspective
• The selection was also guided by the desire to
  give special emphasis to the Clusters identified
  in the RND as Key Clusters

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Focus 1 Production/Availability

• Internal External Market Integration
• Agricultural Liberalization and the Poor
• The Economics of Dynamic Advances
• Access to Inputs (Including Public Services)

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Focus 2 Physical Social Access

• Access via Safety Nets Other Policies
• Shocks, Seasonality, Stability of Access

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Focus 3 Economic Access

• Ultra-Poverty, Poverty, Inequality, Exclusion
• Incomes, Assets, Emplymt., Factor Markets
• Food Prices, Purchasing Power, Markets

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Focus 4 Utilization/Nutrition

• Food Safety and Food Quality
• Food Culture, Diets, Nutrition Standards
• Miscellaneous Issues Related to Utilization

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Focus 5 Cross-Cutting Dimensions

• Governance
• Infrastructure
• Environment
• Women and Other Disadvantaged Groups

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• III. SOME SAMPLE FINDINGS

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 1 (Production/Availability)

• Factors in achieving FS aims since 1990s
• Rapid adoption of HYV technologies
• Development of infrastructure
• Market liberalization
• Factors limiting diversification/comp. advantage
• Resource rigidity surplus labor
• High relative costs for rice, wheat, sugarcane
• due to high labor intensity purely
  private,
• unsubsidized irrigation

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 2 (Physical Social Access)

• Uncertainty regarding effectiveness of targeted
  assistance due to doubts about the extent of
  leakages
• 41 of eligible, mostly extreme poor did not
  participate in NGO activities because services
  such as health or education are offered only via
  the same system of rules used in extending
  microfinance

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 3 (Economic Access)

• Monga is a severe poverty trap, a problem less of
  availability than of access. Durable solutions
  require economic diversification away from
  agriculture
• Majority rural households are landless or
  land-poor and this manifests in their
  indebtedness, powerlessness and poverty. One
  consequence of this is compulsive rural-to-urban
  migration

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 4(Utilization/Nutrition)

• Micronutrient deficiencies are major public
  health issues in Bangladesh. Fortification or
  supplementation is no panacea. Better food
  quality via non-staple foods is critical
• Seasonality has pronounced nutritional impacts.
  Seasonal variation is detectable but only with
  appropriate anthropometric techniques

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 5(Cross-Cutting Governance)

• Political barriers at union-level exclude the
  economically marginalized from the local
  political processes. Alliances are used to
  access public resources and, in turn, used to
  build alliances. This adversely affects access,
  utilization and even availability

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 6(Cross-Cutting
Infrastructure)

• The scale of Ag. Research remains low absorbing
  only 0.25 of AG-GDP (the desired norm at 2.00
  is 8 times as high). Research needed BOTH for
  specialization with greater competitiveness under
  rising globalization AND for diversification into
  non-staples, high-nutrition crops

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 7(Cross-Cutting Environment)

• There is urgent need to mainstream adaptive
  responses in Bangladesh to global climate change
• Translate scientific info. into policy language
• Involve all relevant stakeholders
• Support in-country research on likely impacts

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SAMPLE FINDINGS - 8(Women Other Disadvantaged)

• While food insecurity has declined over the
  decades, nutrition outcomes have failed to keep
  pace. Malnutrition chronic energy deficiency
  and low BMI - is particularly high among women in
  ultra poor households.

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Conclusion

• Room for improving the BMS in scale, scope and
  intensity
• Moving beyond the dimensional perspective to
  cover all of the Key Clusters
• Your suggestions of important titles that we may
  have missed are very welcome Please include
  abstracts if available