A desk review of the Ghana School Feeding Programme. The World Food Programme's Home Grown School Feeding Project

A case study of the Ghana School Feeding Programme produced for the World Food Programme. It focuses on governance structures, financing and procurement dimensions. Aspects such as nutritional issues are outside the scope of the review

Climate-smart agriculture and non-agricultural livelihood transformation

Agricultural researchers have developed a number of agricultural technologies and practices, known collectively as climate-smart agriculture (CSA), as part of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Development practitioners invest in scaling these to have a wider impact. We use the example of the Western Highlands in Guatemala to illustrate how a focus on the number of farmers adopting CSA can foster a tendency to homogenize farmers, instead of recognizing differentiation within farming populations. Poverty is endemic in the Western Highlands, and inequitable land distribution means that farmers have, on average, access to 0.06 ha per person. For many farmers, agriculture per se does not represent a pathway out of poverty, and they are increasingly reliant on non-agricultural income sources. Ineffective targeting of CSA,hence, ignores small-scale farming households’ different capacities for livelihood transformation, which are linked to the opportunities and constraints afforded by different livelihood pathways, agricultural and non-agricultural. Climate-smart interventions will often require a broader and more radical agenda that includes supporting farm households’ ability to build non-agricultural-based livelihoods. Climate risk management options that include livelihood transformation of both agricultural and non-agricultural livelihoods will require concerted cross-disciplinary research and development that encompasses a broader set of disciplines than has tended to be the case to date within the context of CSA

Pushing the boundaries of the social: private agri-food standards and the governance of Fair Trade in European public procurement

The article explores how fair trade and associated private agri-food standards are incorporated into public procurement in Europe. Procurement law is underpinned by principles of equity, non-discrimination and transparency; one consequence is that legal obstacles exist to fair trade being privileged within procurement practice. These obstacles have pragmatic dimensions, concerning whether and how procurement can be used to fulfil wider social policy objectives or to incorporate private standards; they also bring to the fore underlying issues of value. Taking an agency-based approach and incorporating the concept of governability, empirical evidence demonstrates the role played by different actors in negotiating fair trade’s passage into procurement through pre-empting and managing legal risk. This process exposes contestations that arise when contrasting values come together within sustainable procurement. This examination of fair trade in public procurement helps reveal how practices and knowledge on ethical consumption enter into a new governance arena within the global agri-food system

Building pathways out of poverty through climate smart agriculture and effective targeting

A focus of agricultural development is climate smart agricultural technologies and practices (CSA). Development practitioners invest in scaling these to have wider impact. Ineffective targeting stymies CSA’s contribution to poverty reduction by excluding many of the poor and/or including those for whom agriculture is not a pathway out of poverty. We propose the need to recognise differentiated livelihood pathways within smallholder agriculture, linked to farmers’ differential capacity to engage in climate risk management. A farmer and livelihoods typology provides a framework to improved targeting of CSA and to identifying where alternative interventions, such as social protection, are more appropriate

Becoming a region, becoming global, becoming imperceptable: territorialising salmon in Chilean Patagonia

Our article focuses on the region of Chilean Patagonia and considers how it has developed as a leading producer of salmon for global food markets. It addresses the problem of how to decentre conventional views of the forces driving regional development that give primacy to the role of capital and technology, instead giving due recognition to the knowledge and practices of situated actors and to the relationships that form between human and non-human entities in food producing regions. As an alternative, we ask whether an assemblage approach can improve our understanding of regional transformation. To explore this question, we present original ethnographic data on constitutive practices that have transformed the Patagonian region, from the territorialization of Salmonidae species to experimentation in ocean ranching and sea water fish farming, and finally the development of a global industry. The evidence leads us to argue that in a complex globalised world, assemblage theory offers a valuable approach for understanding how regional potential is realised. In the case of Chilean Patagonia, it is apparent that forms of bio-power generate new relations between life, agency and nature, stimulating contemporary regional transformations in ways overlooked by the lineal logic of capital objectification discourses. Applying an assemblage approach enables the significance of new contemporary human – non-human relationships and inter-subjectivities to come to the fore, keeping the social in view as potential for regional transformation and new power asymmetries continuously emerge

Transforming asymmetrical conflicts over natural resources in the Global South

This article examines the relationship between natural resources and processes of conflict and cooperation as they occur in the Global South. We introduce key issues and reflect on emerging research. With a focus on middle-range theory, moving from empirical phenomena to analytical understanding, what emerges is a nuanced view of conflict and cooperation, as embedded within specific contexts and wider processes of power and accumulation. In considering how social ecological resilience can emerge from the poorest and most marginalised groups in the Global South, middle-range theory built upon comparative case study research and data-rich analyses brings issues of environmental (in)justice in resource access and distribution to the fore. Our conclusions reiterate a view of conflict transformation whose dynamics are locally situated, with complex drivers that negate any conjuring of simplistic solutions and underline the important role research can play in informing appropriate development action

Embodiment and reflexivity: gaining insight into food lifeways through the Chili Cook-off in Ajijic, Mexico

In this chapter we focus on the embodiment of food within lived experience by taking the case of the Mexican National Chili Cook-off competition in Ajijic, Jalisco State in Mexico. Through this example we demonstrate how a food-affect-resonance becomes apparent within “food lifeways", giving expression to ways of being in the world that focus on the interactions between people and things through the medium of food. Here bodies and material things align with people’s sense of dwelling in a locality and their commitment to charitable aims through a public event

Mississippi Kids Count: Early Childhood Education

Early education is crucial to supporting healthy childhood development and to providing a strong foundation for future schooling and general success. Defined as education between birth and age eight, early childhood education is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes for both the child as well as the community as a whole. Scientific studies suggest that participation in high quality early education, which includes elements such as trained and skilled teachers, small class sizes, and frequent child interaction and participation, improves cognitive and social development among all, but especially among low-income children. Research shows that children develop ninety percent of their adult-size brains in the first five years of life and therefore the provision of abundant information, proper stimulation and sufficient encouragement are keys to future success

Younger adolescents’ perceptions of physical activity, exergaming, and virtual reality:qualitative intervention development study

Background. Novel strategies to promote physical activity (PA) in adolescence are required. The vEngage study aims to test whether a virtual reality (VR) exergaming intervention can engage younger adolescents (13-15 year old) with physical activity. Objective: This study aimed to gather adolescents’ views of using VR to encourage PA and identify the key features they would like to see in a VR exergaming intervention via interviews. Methods: Participants were recruited through two schools in London, UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents about their views on PA and what might work to increase PA, technology, knowledge and experience of VR, and desired features in a VR exergaming intervention. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis. Results: 31 13-15 year olds (58% female, 62% from non-white ethnicities) participated in this interview study. The vast majority had no awareness of government PA recommendations, but felt they should be more thoroughly informed. All participants were positive about the use of VR in PA promotion. Rewards, increasing challenges and a social/multiplayer aspect were identified by participants as crucial aspects to include in a VR exercise game. Barriers were related to cost of high-end systems. Being able to exercise at home was very appealing. VR exergaming was viewed as a way to overcome multiple perceived social and cultural barriers to PA, particularly for girls. Conclusions: Key elements that should be incorporated into a VR for health intervention were identified and described. These also included the use of rewards, novelty and enjoyment in immersive game play, multi-player options, real-world elements, as well as continual updates and new challenge levels. The use of VR to promote PA in adolescents is promising, but some barriers were raised