C225 Food Security and Social Protection
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About this Module
This module investigates issues related to the provision of social protection (or in its older formulation, social security) in developing countries. Today, deprivation in developing countries remains persistent and severe while individuals, households, and communities are confronted with new sources of vulnerability resulting from increased exposure to market fluctuations, financial and economics crises, environmental degradation, new epidemics and other complex emergencies. It is thus for good reason that social protection in developing countries is primarily concerned with the prevention of extreme deprivation and the removal of vulnerability. On the other hand, it is also important to consider the contribution social protection can make to a nation’s long-term developmental trajectory. Throughout this module, we will consider trade-offs and synergies between two distinct features of social protection: (a) its short-run protective (safety net) dimension; (b) its promotional dimension and influence on long-term development goals of economic development and political empowerment.
The issues to be covered are conceptual and normative, as well as empirical and practical. Because hunger and starvation are the most acute manifestations of deprivation, the issue of food security will provide a prism through which to review and discuss the challenges, dilemmas and opportunities of building a social protection system in developing countries. Because the distribution of welfare in a society is the result of intertwined economic and political processes, we will address both the economics and politics of food security and social protection. Our focus will be on social policies that address poverty and vulnerability in rural areas.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
By the end of this course, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
Inter-linkages between Food security and Social Protection
- Conceptual and normative issues underpinning social protection in the context of developing countries, including the role of public action in social protection.
- Frontier issues on social protection, including its contribution to longer-term developmental goals (economic development, empowerment and good governance)
Food Security
- Food security and its relationship to the concepts of vulnerability, hunger, malnutrition and poverty
- Factors influencing livelihoods, and the role of livelihoods, entitlement and vulnerability analysis for interventions in different food security contexts, including how markets operate and affect food security and vulnerable households.
- Food security crisis, their main causes and various interventions put into place to mitigate its social, economic and political impact
- Factors influencing nutritional status and malnutrition and various food security conceptual frameworks used for food security analysis by policy-makers
Social Protection
- Widely used social protection instruments, including their main features and intended channels to address vulnerabilities, as well as trade-offs concerning the choice between them.
- Options and challenges faced by policy makers in the design and implementation of social protection instruments in practice, including intended and unintended impacts on resource allocation decisions, production incentives and the consumption patterns of beneficiary households.
- Various public and private financing methods and the impacts of government versus donor investment on the sustainability and legitimacy of programmes
- The politics of social protection and the ways in which policy, history, political actors and socio-economic factors can affect the scope, characteristics and support for social protection interventions
- Methodological issues in assessing the impact of social protection programmes and empirical evidence of their impacts by type of instruments, including the reasons for failure and success and lessons for future programme
- The rights-based approach social protection and its relationships with governance issues in developing countries
Scope and syllabus
Because hunger and starvation are the most acute manifestations of deprivation, the issue of food security will provide us with a prism through which to review and discuss the challenges, dilemmas and opportunities of building a social protection system in developing countries. Because the distribution of welfare in a society is the result of intertwined economic and political processes, we will address both the economics and politics of food security and social protection.
Unit 1 sets up the concepts to be used throughout the module to explore the idea and practice of social protection. We present three conceptual frameworks (the livelihoods framework, the entitlement framework, and concepts of risks and vulnerability) which together help identify the channels through which a shock can either trigger a precipitous decline in living standards or contribute to perpetuate deprivation.
Units 2 to 4 are dedicated to the issue of food security. We introduce the concept of food security and discuss how it is related to a household’s resource base and its ability to cope with various livelihood threats. We then turn our attention to food security crises and the effectiveness of policies aiming at preventing hunger and malnutrition. The increase in food prices in 2007/2008 provide the backdrop against which we will reflect on food security and social protection. We provide an overview of the main causes underlying the global food crisis, and discuss various interventions put into place by governments across the world to mitigate its social, economic and political impact.
Unit 5-8 deals with the nuts and bolts of social protection provision. Unit 5 discusses the various objectives of social protection, in particular the distinction between social protection to tackle chronic vs. transient poverty. Unit 6 addresses the actual operationalization of social protection programmes, presents the key design features of social protection instruments, various options for their implementation, and discusses intended vs. unintended outcomes drawing on practical examples in developing countries. Unit 7 and 8 deal with the political economy of social protection. We first introduce possible financing methods, in particular the differences between government and donor financing and their implications for long-term political support social protection. We discuss how political elements such as policy history, political actors and social fragmentation impact the implementation and sustainability of social protection programmes. At last, this will be turned on its head by discussing how social protection programmes themselves can be used to mobilise and consolidate political support. Unit 8 presents the diverse types, and the most significant empirical evidence of impacts, of social protection programmes, including why some programmes have shown either “disappointing” or positive results and lessons for future development of social protection.
Finally, Unit 9 and 10 address issues at the frontier of debates regarding food security and social protection. The idea that social protection should also promote long-term economic development has been debated for a long time but is yet to be clearly articulated in development policy. We discuss and review evidence that social protection measures can contribute to, and be integrated within, a longer-term developmental strategy, including economic development, empowerment and good governance.
