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Measuring the end of hunger: Knowledge politics in the selection of SDG food security indicators

Author

Listed:
  • Thor Olav Iversen

    (University of Bergen)

  • Ola Westengen

    (Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU))

  • Morten Jerven

    (Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU))

Abstract

Ending world hunger remains one of the central global challenges, but the question of how to measure and define the problem is politically charged. This article chronicles and analyses the indicator selection process for SDG 2.1, focusing in particular on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) indicator. Despite alleged efforts to separate political and technical aspects in the indicator selection process we find that they were entangled from the start. While there was significant contestation around which indicators should be selected, the process was characterized by pathway lock-in: The complexity of food security quantification and the resource constraints in the process favored already established data infrastructures and milieus of expertise, locking in the position of FAO and its established food security indicators. The SDG 2.1 indicators frame food insecurity in terms of caloric supply and demand and individual experience, arguably excluding dimensions of democratic agency, sustainability and other dimensions and drivers of food insecurity. The lock-in has thus embedded a narrow concept of food security in the major global indicator framework for food security monitoring. This is likely to have significant effects on how food insecurity is addressed nationally and internationally. Addressing the knowledge politics of food security indicators is important to broaden and open the agenda for sustainable transformation of food systems. Statistics and indicators are important tools in this agenda, but a diversity of approaches and data infrastructures from the local to the international level are needed to understand the multiple dimensions and drivers of food insecurity.

Suggested Citation

  • Thor Olav Iversen & Ola Westengen & Morten Jerven, 2023. "Measuring the end of hunger: Knowledge politics in the selection of SDG food security indicators," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1273-1286, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:40:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-023-10418-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-023-10418-6
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Cadavid & Vivek Arulnathan & Nathan Pelletier, 2024. "Food Security and Food Sovereignty: A Review of Commonly Used Indicators and Consideration of Environmental Sustainability Aspects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Thor Olav Iversen, 2023. "Boundary experts: Science and politics in measuring the Sustainable Development Goals," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(4), pages 600-610, September.
    3. Iversen, Thor Olav & Westengen, Ola T. & Jerven, Morten, 2023. "The history of hunger: Counting calories to make global food security legible," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).

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