Food Insecurity, Vulnerability and Human Rights Failure
Do we have a right to food? The significance of a human rights approach, and the way in which it translates to gender considerations, with links to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, agricultural productivity and the environment, adds a new dimension to the problem of world hunger. By exploring these approaches to hunger this volume is novel in its shift away from rather obvious research on macro food availability to more composite dimensions cutting across economics, sociology, law and politics. With regional experiences and country case studies this constitutes an invaluable collection for researchers and activists trying to make a difference.
Table of contents
'This book is a very important and timely analysis of interactions between food insecurity, vulnerability and the right to food. Given the continued failure to meet global hunger reduction targets set by the international community it is vitally important to have rigorous analysis of what does and doesn't work. This book, through its wide-ranging coverage of different country and regional experiences, and through its focus on the multi-faceted elements of the hunger problem, provides that analysis. It will be of great importance and utility to policy makers as well as to academics working in the area. I strongly recommend it.' - Nick Chisholm, Senior Lecturer in International Development and Food Policy, University College Cork, Ireland
'There is much to commend in these papers. In particular researchers in food security will find the papers very useful for identifying priority issues, understanding the methodological complexities and achieving a workable balance between analytical rigour and the limitations of data. While these are tempting areas to comment on, we choose to focus this review on alarming signals which the book provides about the weak prospects for eliminating food insecurity in the near future.' - V.M. Rao, Economic & Political Weekly, 17 May 2008
'This volume provides a valuable addition to WIDER’s rich body of work on the issues of poverty and distributive justice. The essays in this volume should be essential reading for policymakers who remain committed to ending hunger within a more just society.' - Rehman Sobhan, Chairman, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka