Darana Souza and Danuta Chmielewska (2011), International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth, Working Paper No. 80, April.

Presenting a comparative study of the food-security policy agendas in India, Brazil and South Africa, the paper shows that there are similarities as well as differences in the policies adopted, priorities given to various food-security issues. The experience of each of these countries in ensuring food-security provides an important opportunity for these three countries to share knowledge on the fight against poverty, hunger and diseases.

The issue of food-security is a common challenge in India, Brazil and South Africa. Despite significant developmental progress, all the three countries are plagued by problems of relatively high levels of poverty, inequality and food insecurity. Given the commonality in the problems they face and their capacity for action on a global scale, in 2003, these countries came together to form a common platform, IBSA, to share knowledge and experience on the fight against poverty, hunger and diseases.

In this paper, Darana Souza and Danuta Chmielewska present a comparative study of the food-security policy agendas in these three countries. In this context, the authors focus on some key areas of policy and programmes adopted by the countries that could be taken into consideration in possible exchanges of knowledge. The key issues are organised into broad themes, namely, the rights-based approach, food production, and food access.

The authors begin by noting the food security situation in these countries, based on a set of international measures. Seen in terms of different international measures of food security, the picture that emerges is that the problem of food security is most acute in India, although Brazil and South Africa also face their own dilemmas.

On the issue of food security policy agenda in these three countries, the authors note that, the official definition of food security adopted by them are similar to each other as well as to the international food-security definition developed since the World Food Summit, 1996. And “these definitions are reflected in the public initiatives that the three countries undertake”. While the public initiatives in all three countries consider (to an extent) multidimensional features of food security, each country has different “ways of conceiving of and implementing policy and programming”.

These differences are reflected in the methodology used for assessing food security situation, the programmes seen as priorities, the attempt to coordinate various food-security programmes etc. In this connection the authors provide details of the different approaches, the programmes adopted and the core areas of intervention that each country seeks to address in food-security programmes. They argue that both South Africa and Brazil have designed umbrella programmes that seek to harmonise various food-security programmes in place. In India, on the other hand, the wide range of programmes on food security does not “comprise a common, formalised strategy as in Brazil and South Africa”.

However, when it comes to adopting and implementing rights-based approach to food-security, India stands ahead of the other two countries as it has created ‘legal tools for enforcement and accountability measures related to the human right to adequate food’. While Brazil has been successful in establishing bodies and laws to enforce the right to food, legal consolidation is at a nascent stage and mechanisms to ensure accountability in case of violation of this right are yet to be put in place. In South Africa, the situation is worse as it is “yet to define the institutions and legal instruments capable of enforcing implementation and addressing violations of related public actions”.

Regarding food production and producers, in all the three countries disadvantaged small farmers constitute a significant share of the population’s poor and food-insecure. Therefore, all three countries have policies for supporting food production by smallholder or family farmers. Compared to the other two countries, Brazil has taken more significant steps towards consolidating a broad framework of actions targeted at this group. Other than providing financial support to this section, the government directly purchases various agricultural goods at market prices in order to facilitate market access exclusively for family farmers. Other policies address issues such as land reform and technical assistance. In India, where the average size of operational holdings is significantly smaller and the number of such holdings much larger than in Brazil or South Africa, policies to support to food production by smallholder farmers are relatively less.

The issue of ensuring individual and household access to food, figures as the major element of food-security programmes in all the three countries. Providing details of different types of programmes in existence, the authors contend that the programmes seen as priorities (in terms of budget allocation) are different in nature.

Thus in Brazil the emphasis is conditional cash transfers and school meals, in South Africa the focus is largely on different kinds of grants through the country’s social security scheme. Finally in India, major programme to ensure food access is the Targeted Public Distribution Scheme (TDPS), followed by mid-day meals (MDM), both in-kind transfer programmes. “Moreover, India and South Africa accord much importance to public works programmes, whereas Brazil does not.”

Regarding the assessment of impacts of food-security intervention in the three countries, the authors concede that because of existence of several related programmes it is a difficult exercise. Going by broad trends, in the case of Brazil, national trends show that malnutrition, food inaccessibility, poverty and inequality have reduced in the recent decades. However, certain regions within the country continue to fare badly in these indicators. Also, there are significant disparities between urban and rural areas and between races. Similarly, in South Africa, despite progress in some areas, there are significant internal disparities, including among races. In India, while poverty has declined in recent decades, the share of the population that is undernourished has increased and “the prevalence of underweight in children below the age of three has not improved much”.

On the basis of these analyses, the authors argue that each country’s experience and policies can provide important inputs for ensuring food-security in their respective countries. While India’s experience in the consolidation of a rights-based approach to food security is exemplary, both Brazil and South Africa’s experience of addressing food-security problem through cash transfer programmes are worth considering for India. All these experiences show that perhaps both in-kind transfer and cash-transfers can be used simultaneously. On the whole, the authors conclude that “the matters addressed in this paper indicate that … there are important opportunities for knowledge exchange within IBSA on overall guidelines, policy strategies and programming”.