SSP 7118 Food and Food Security Planning and Management
Course description
Food is a basic human need and fundamental right; and food security is a lense that can be used to assess a country’s level of development and welfare situation. Uganda’s food security sitution is facing increasing challenges as of a result of several social, economic and environmental changes. With the general assumption that Uganda is food secure, more and more Ugandans are finding problems in accessing sufficient food as individuals and househols. Rapid population growth, increasing urbanization, land constraints, climatic changes (with extended drought in large parts of the country, floods and land slides), civil conflicts, economic crises coupled with rising commodity prices and numerous other issues are impacting on Uganda’s food security situation. While the country has strengthened agricultural stimulus and poverty reduction policies, it has not achieved food security and some regions such as Karamoja are chronically food insecure.
Objectives
1. To examine theoretical and methodological approaches to the understanding of food and food security
2. To appreciate the basic premise of food insecurity including failure to access, and political, economic and social constructs of food security.
3. Introduce the concept of food security and tools used in food security analysis, planning and management.
4. To define the relationship between food security and other sectors such as development, health, malnutrition, economic growth, environment, education, etc. 5. To provide to students guidelines on how to interpret and use conceptual frameworks for analysing food security policies, as well as formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of food security programmes.
6. Use case studies, the course will examine local practices in the attempt to achieve food security.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
1. Articulate the different approaches to understanding and enhancing food security
2. Draw the implications of the various approaches to food security to social sector planning and management
3. Appreciate the opportunities and challenges of mainstreamed food security in national policies and plans
Methods and assessment
Covering different thematic areas, readings, discussions and exercises, the course will focus on the current debates concerning the causes and dynamics of food security and a critical analysis of interventions aimed at improving food access.
The methods will mainly be lectures and discussions, but students will also be given individual and group assignments including case studies.
Assessment will be based on course work assignments and an end of semester examinations. Two sets of course work will be given and these will together account for 40% of the final mark. The final examination will carry 60% of the overall mark.
Key themes for the course
The course will follow the following themes:
· An introduction to concept and meaning of food security.
· Introduction and discussion of the different theoretical approaches to food insecurity and how they have evolved, (Malthus, Sen’s entitlement approach, contemporary livelihoods theory etc).
· Discussion of the inter-linkages between food security with other sectors of development (health, malnutrition, education, economic growth, agriculture, environment etc).
· Discussion of food determinants to food access and inequities at different levels (individual, households, communities and regions) and policy implications.
· Identification of the main components of food security and the mechanisms that must be in place to ensure equitable and sustainable access to food at different levels.
· Discussion of foreign aid and its implication to sustainable food security.
· Identification and discussion of local food systems and coping strategies for security.
· Monitoring food security
References
Bahiigwa, G. B. 1999, Household food security in Uganda: an empirical analysis, EPRC/Makerere University, Kampala.
Berry, S. 1993, No condition is permanent: the social dynamics of agrarian change in sub-Saharan Africa The University of Wisconsin press, London.
Bhatia, B. m. 1986, The 'entitlement approach to famine' analysis. A critique Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg Chanakyapuri, New Dehli.
Boserup, E. 1965, The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure George Allen and Unwin Limited, London.
Bryceson, F. D. 2000, Sustaining rural livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa: sustaining what and for how long?, Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.
Carney, J. A. 1996, "Converting the wetlands, engendering the environment," in Liberation ecologies. Environment, development, social movements, R. Peet & M. Watts, eds., Routledge, London, pp. 165-187.
Carswell, G. 2002, "Farmers and fallowing: agricultural change in Kigezi District, Uganda", The Geographical journal, vol. 168, no. 2, pp. 130-140.
Carswell, G. 2003, "Food crops as cash crops:the case of colonial Kigezi, Uganda", Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 3,no. 4, pp. 521-551.
Davis Sussane 1996, "Are coping strategies a cope out?", IDS Bulletin, vol. 24,no. 4, pp. 60-72.
De Waal, A. 1990, "A re-assessment of Entitlement theory in the light of recent famines in Africa", Development and Change, vol. 21,no. 3, pp. 469-490.
Devereux, S. 1993, Theories of famine Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York.
Devereux, S. & Maxwell, S. 2001, "Introduction," in Food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, S. Devereux & Maxwell Simon, eds., ITDG Publishing, London, pp. 1-12.
Jamal, V. 1991, "The agrarian context of the Ugandan crisis," in Changing Uganda: the dilemmas of structural adjustment and revolutionary change, H. B. Hansen & M. Twaddle, eds., James Currey, London.
Mwaka, V. 1991, "The environment and food security in Uganda", Eastern and Southern Africa Geographical Journal, vol. 2,no. 1, pp. 67-82.
Nyangabyaki Bazaara 2000, "The limits of agricultural reforms in contemporary Uganda", News from the Nordic Institute, vol. 3, pp. 2-4.
Nyangabyaki Bazaara 2001, Impact of Liberalisation on Agriculture and Food Security in Uganda- 1987-2000, SAPRI-Uganda/CBR, Kampala.
Pottier, J. & Fairhead James 1991, "Post-famine recovery in highland Bwisa, Zaire: 1984 in its contexts", Africa, vol. 61, pp. 537-570.
Rahamato, D. 1991, Famine and survival strategies: a case study from northeast Ethiopia Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala.
Rural development and Food security 2000, Rural development policy and strategic framework: Uganda pilot study, DG Development.
Sen, A. 1981, Poverty and famines. An essay on entitlements and deprivation Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Tabatabai, H. 1986, Food crisis and development policies in Sub-Saharan Africa International Labour Office, Geneva.
Whyte, A. M. 1992, One food or many: the social and cultural contexts of food production in Uganda and Kenya, Center for African Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.
Whyte, A. M. 2004. ‘We are not eating our own food here’: food security and the cash economy in Eastern Uganda. Land Degradation and Development.vol.17, pp: 173-182.