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Conceptualizing hunger in contemporary African policymaking: From technical to community-based approaches

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  • Christopher Barrett
  • Joanne Csete

Abstract

This paper explains and offers a criticism of the technical solutions that have been proposed in recent years to address Africa's hunger problems, summarizes selected results of some of these approaches, and suggests a more useful conceptualization of African hunger for policymakers. Hunger is a problem with multifactorial causality. As such, it is not given to solution by the sequence of reductionist approaches that have been applied in recent years. Widespread adoption by African governments of ultimately unsuccessful reductionist conceptualizations of hunger has had much to do with foreign aid dependency, the general absence from central policymaking circles of senior government officials with responsibility for hunger-related policies, and political preference for centralized bureaucracy. The paper concludes with some recommendations for community-based strategies of hunger alleviation. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1994

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  • Christopher Barrett & Joanne Csete, 1994. "Conceptualizing hunger in contemporary African policymaking: From technical to community-based approaches," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 11(4), pages 38-46, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:11:y:1994:i:4:p:38-46
    DOI: 10.1007/BF01530414
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    1. Barrett, Christopher B., 1996. "Fairness, stewardship and sustainable development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 11-17, October.
    2. Barrett, Christopher B., 1998. "Markets, Social Norms, And Governments In The Service Of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development," Economics Research Institute, ERI Study Papers 28352, Utah State University, Economics Department.

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