Food security policy choices : a review of the usefulness of public policy taxonomies

This paper addresses the "dependent variable" problem in food security policies, namely the difficulty in classifying food security policies that limits comparative policy studies. Policy comparisons require criteria that are general enough for broad application but sensitive to the context. A rigorous and objective basis for comparisons would allow for studying how policies, and food security policies in particular, emerge. This is important in Africa as, in the past, food security and nutrition crises have been attributed to the failure of government policies. This paper reviews the main key available public policy classifications based on their predictability, mutual-exclusivity and relevance. These include Lowi's and Wilson's typologies, the agricultural policies' classification by Norton and the FAO-FAPDA classification. The review found that available typologies do not accommodate multi-sectoral actions and are not entirely applicable to food security public policy classification. The domain shift from food policy to food security, and more recently to food systems demands that all elements in the food system to be taken into consideration in the policy process. This limits the use of policies as "dependent variables" and hence the study of how they emerge, particularly in Africa. A critique of available policy classes shows that these cannot be treated as "dependent variables". It is argued that a potential solution to the "dependent variable" problem of food security policies lies in the development of a taxonomy, simplifying their complexity with analytical shortcuts. Having reviewed Candel and Daugbjergs’ recent taxonomy, refinements are proposed to be applied in the African context. The proposed taxonomy represents an alternative to classify food security policies in Africa along four core dimensions. This classification offers prospects for researchers to study what factors drives policy-classes in one direction or the other, along the four dimensions. Although the scales and calibration of the four dimensions will need to be developed and tested, the proposed typology offers a way to treat the dimensions as “dependent variables”.https://ajfand.netpm2021Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

The effect of large-scale agricultural investments on household food security in Madagascar

Large-scale agricultural investments in developing countries have escalated over the past decade. While much is written about the potential adverse effects of these acquisitions on local communities, there is a paucity of evidence of these impacts. This paper explores the effect of large-scale agribusinesses on household food security in two locations in Madagascar. One is plantation area or Location A and the other one is contract farming area or Location B. The sample of 601 households was classified into households (i) in which at least one member was employed or (ii) contracted to the agribusiness, (iii) in the same area that were neither employees nor contractors (non-engaged) and (iv) counterfactual households from another community. Employment opportunities from the agribusinesses seemed to improved food security. Dietary quality, food security and resilience were higher among employed households. Contract households were generally more food insecure than the counterfactual and non-engaged households. Living in the zone of influence did not seem to have major adverse effects on the food security of non-engaged households. However, female-headed households seemed disadvantaged in terms of access to employment and contracting opportunities. Unless attention is paid to women’s access to employment and contracting opportunities, inequality may be exacerbated.The Belmont Forum and the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) African Food, Agriculture, Land and Natural Resource Dynamics (AFGROLAND) project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the French National Research Agency and the South African National Research Foundation.http://link.springer.com/journal/125712021-07-13hj2020Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

An application of set theory to the classification of food security policies in eight African countries

Despite the existing body of literature dealing with policies and policy change and the impact of institutions on these changes, very little is understood about how food security policies emerge on the policy agenda and what influences their design. This study used a set theory analysis to investigate the role of political institutions, institutional environment and the structure of a country’s economy in determining its food security policy choices, and what configurations of these determinants enabled or constrained food security policy outcomes in eight African countries. A taxonomy was created to organise the food security policy outcomes against four criteria: i) Policy coordination (the degree to which different policies consistently address the cross-cutting aspects of food security); ii) Geographic scope (distinguishing policies that apply and are implemented across the country from those targeting a specific geographic area); iii) Orientation (distinguishing producer- from consumer-oriented policies); and iv) Level of state involvement (dealing with the state’s engagement in the provision of goods and services as an approach to governance that involves the assertion of authority or its conscious limitation). The food security policies of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique were evaluated against these criteria. The conditions analysed included constitutional rules (electoral and governance systems, veto players), institutional environments (accountability, trust, state legitimacy and capacity) and structural economic characteristics. A set-theoretic analysis was performed on the eight countries’ policies. Crisp and fuzzy analyses were applied to the same dataset to identify empirical patterns of sufficiency, necessity and INUS (insufficient but non-redundant parts of a condition, which is itself unnecessary but sufficient for the occurrence of the effect) conditions. Expectations drawn from the literature were examined against the logical results of the analysis. The results identified the causally relevant combinations for each policy criteria. Based on analytical results, an Excel-based tool was developed to check for contradictory predictions in all African countries, informing on the level of generalisation of these findings outside the sample. This work shows that formal political institutions matter for food security outcomes, but not everywhere. When (some) constitutional rules are in combination with conditions pertaining to country structural characteristics and informal institutions, policy outcomes can be explained and predicted. This work contributes to understanding the design and implementation of food security policies in Africa. These insights have benefit for both governments and donors. The inclusion of factors relating to the institutional environment enabled an innovative operationalisation of the suppositions related to neo-patrimonialism, providing insight into how formal political institutions and informal rules related to food security policy work in Africa. However, the focus of analysis on exogenous factors, rather than sector-specific governance in a country, facilitates more general (and generalisable) findings.Thesis (PhD (Rural Development))--Univeristy of Pretoria, 2020.Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural DevelopmentPhD (Rural Development)Unrestricte