Brief

IDS Policy Briefing;124

Delivering Social Protection that Nourishes: Lessons from the Food Price Crisis

Published on 8 September 2016

The global food crisis of 2007–11 brought about lasting changes to the relationship between the work people do and the food they eat. Real-time research conducted by IDS, Oxfam and research partners in ten focus countries has found the cost of these changes has gone uncounted.

Higher food prices have led to more precarious work and changing diets, with variable developmental and nutritional impacts. Social protection policies and programmes should protect the social aspects of life – the unpaid care work of nourishing families that is mainly shouldered by women, and the non-monetary value of traditional crops and cuisines – against market uncertainties. They need to ensure a balance between the work people do and the subsistence it affords them. To help them do this, better data are needed on informal economies, changing food habits and how unpaid care work is being affected by women’s changing economic roles.

Authors

Naomi Hossain

Research Fellow

Publication details

published by
Institute of Development Studies
authors
Hossain, Naomi
journal
IDS Policy Briefing, issue 124
language
English

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