High and rising food prices no longer come as a surprise, but rapid price changes and the cumulative effects of five years’ worth of price rises are still squeezing those on low incomes. People are working harder over longer hours and their wages are not keeping pace with inflation, so they are having to adapt wherever, and however, possible.
This document is the highlights report for the first year results of a four-year study on how food price volatility affects everyday life find important changes in people’s wellbeing and development. But in areas of life neglected by policy, domestic care work and informal social safety nets in particular, Squeezed provides reasons to prepare for the next food price spike and provides recommendations for how best to do so, including widening social assistance for the most vulnerable; being ready with temporary spike-proofing measures; monitoring the real impacts on people’s lives and wellbeing; rethinking social protection policy to ‘crowd-in’ care and informal social assistance; and enabling people to participate in policies to tackle food price volatiality.
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