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The MDG Hunger Target and the Competing Frameworks of Food Security

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  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
  • Amy Orr

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of global goals on policies and ideas in development. The paper analyzes the consequences of the Millennium Development Goal hunger target on international development priorities and discourse. We argue that while the target did little to mobilize support to hunger as a global priority, it had more important implications for reshaping food security strategies. It reframed the narrative of hunger around under-nutrition targets that could be reached through narrowly focused and targeted interventions. Since 2000, strategies adopted by high-profile and well-resourced global initiatives emphasize short-term achievements of results, technological solutions, and the important role of the private sector. This contrasts with the 1996 World Food Summit consensus that conceptualized food as a human right, and food security as a multi-dimensional challenge emphasizing social, economic and political change. Although global goals focused on outcomes are intended to be neutral with respect to the strategic means to achieve them, the hunger target reframed the hunger challenge as a consumption issue amenable to short-term, technology-driven solutions. Left out of this frame are the long-term solutions to access, dependence on wage exchange, smallholder production, and social transfers. The choice of indicators also contributed to this simplification, marginalizing issues of vulnerability and instability in access, nutritional quality, and the host of social and political constraints. The target illustrates the power of target setting in framing the international development policy discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr & Amy Orr, 2014. "The MDG Hunger Target and the Competing Frameworks of Food Security," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2-3), pages 147-160, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jhudca:v:15:y:2014:i:2-3:p:147-160
    DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2014.896323
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mousumi Das & Ajay Sharma & Suresh Chandra Babu, 2018. "Pathways from agriculture-to-nutrition in India: implications for sustainable development goals," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1561-1576, December.
    2. Muhammad Khalid Anser & Romanus Osabohien & Olawale Olonade & Alhassan Abdulwakeel Karakara & Idowu Bashiru Olalekan & Junaid Ashraf & Angie Igbinoba, 2021. "Impact of ICT Adoption and Governance Interaction on Food Security in West Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-11, May.
    3. 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.
    4. 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).
    5. Haysom, Gareth & Tawodzera, Godfrey, 2018. "“Measurement drives diagnosis and response”: Gaps in transferring food security assessment to the urban scale," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 117-125.

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