Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure

Abstract

Thirteen papers examine the significance of human rights approaches to food security and how this translates into gender consideration, with links to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, agricultural productivity, and the environment. Papers discuss national food policies impacting on food security--the experience of a large populated country--India; food security in the South Pacific Island Countries with special reference to the Fiji Islands; food security in the Southern African Development Community region--an assessment of national trade strategy in the context of the 2001-03 food crisis; the role of food-based safety nets in helping vulnerable households manage food insecurity; the public distribution systems of foodgrains and implications for food security--a comparison of the experiences of India and China; gender, HIV/AIDS, and rural livelihoods--micro-level investigations in three African countries; gender, local knowledge, and lessons learned in documenting and conserving agrobiodiversity; gender differentiation in the analysis of alternative farm mechanization choices on small farms in Kenya; women and food security in South Asia--current issues and emerging concerns; entitlement failure from a food quality perspective--the life and death role of vitamins and minerals in humanitarian crises; the right to food as a fundamental human right--the Food and Agriculture Organization's experience; realizing the right to food in South Asia; and the rights-based approach to development--lessons from the right to food movement in India. Guha-Khasnobis is Senior Research Fellow at United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research. Acharya is Honorary Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur, Vice President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and President of the Agricultural Economics Research Association of India. Davis is an economist with the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Index.