LCIRAH
Deadline: 15 April 2013
The Food Expenditure Ratio: a tool for monitoring effects of changing food prices on food security and nutrition.
The Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH) has been established under a generous grant from the Leverhulme Trust to build an intersectoral and interdisciplinary platform for integrating research in agriculture and health, with a focus on international development goals.
Applications are invited for a LCIRAH doctoral studentship tenable at SOAS for 3 years starting in October 2013. This studentship is run by the Centre for Development Environment and Policy (CeDEP) at SOAS
Nature & scope of doctoral thesis
Recent years have seen marked rises in food prices and major concerns about the impacts of these on the food security of vulnerable people. There is, however, no widely used metric or indicator of the effects of higher food prices on the real incomes of poorer people, who spend a large proportion of their income on food. Food price increases can lead to large reductions in disposable income for such people, with damaging effects on nutrition, on non-food expenditures (including, for example, reduced investments in schooling and in income generating activities), and on long term personal and national development.
The Food Expenditure Ratio (FER) has been proposed as a metric that addresses these issues (Dorward, 2013). It is intuitively appealing metric in its description of the short term impacts of volatile food prices on different income groups, with a sound theoretical base It needs, however, further development, testing of its robustness, and investigation of the extent to which it captures nutritional impacts of changing food prices for lower income groups.
This project will develop, extend and test the FER and related metrics as measures of the impacts of food prices on food security and nutritional status of people in different income groups in different contexts and at different scales of analysis and aggregation. Aggregate analysis should address the use of the FER in global, regional and national monitoring of food security. This will be augmented by a small number of more detailed case studies of specific countries or livelihood groups within countries. A variety of methods may be used in this, for example detailed analysis of LSMS, DHS and other datasets and/or livelihood models.
The lead supervisor will be Professor Andrew Dorward, Centre for Development, Environment, and Policy (CeDEP), SOAS. For more information on this topic, please contact Prof Dorward at Andrew.Dorward@soas.ac.uk
Value of the studentship
The studentship will cover fieldwork costs for the duration of the studentship (amount to be confirmed), student stipend at the Research Council UK Doctoral (London) rate (for 2012-13, this was £15,590), and UK/EU tuition fees. Applicants paying fees at the overseas rate will be required to meet the additional cost of overseas fees.
Criteria and Requirements
- Subject –This studentship is available for work on a doctoral thesis to be undertaken full time at SOAS.
- Only new applicants may apply: those already enrolled on a research degree programme at SOAS are not eligible to apply.
- Academic – Applicants must normally possess or be expected to possess a good UK Master’s degree (or a qualification deemed equivalent by the School) in a relevant discipline. This will be an inter-sectoral project, and we are looking for students with a good grounding in applied economics and relevant skills or interests in nutrition and/or agriculture, who would enjoy and be comfortable with learning and using skills across different sectors in a multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral research group.
Candidate Assessment
- Candidates will be assessed on academic merit by a Selection Panel consisting of three academic members.
- The assessment of your application will be based on the information in your studentship application. Selectors will be looking at the degree results and also at academic references, statement and other relevant information.
Studentship Application Deadline
- The LCIRAH studentship application form must be received as soon as possible but no later than 15 April 2013.
- Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.
- Applicants must have also applied for admission as soon as possible but no later than the studentship application deadline (15 April) in order to be considered for this studentship. As the studentship is run through the Centre for Development, Environment, and Policy (CeDEP), which is based in the Department of Financial & Management Studies, applicants must choose ‘MPhil/PhD FINANCIAL AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES' as the programme of study in their application for admission. The application for admission must be complete and references must have been submitted.
Notifications of Results
Only successful candidates will be notified by e-mail regarding the outcome of their studentship application by the end of June. If you have not heard from us by the end of June, you should assume that your studentship application was unsuccessful.
Studentship Application Procedures
The LCIRAH studentship application form and further information about the project is available for download from the download box at the top right or can be obtained from:
Scholarships Officer
Registry
SOAS
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London
WC1H 0XG
United Kindgom
Email: scholarships@soas.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7074 5094/5091
