WUNRN
FAO – Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
http://www.fao.org/publications/sofa/en/
State of Food & Agriculture
2015 – Social Protection & Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty
Direct Link to Full 151-Page Report: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4910e.pdf
Direct Link to 12-Page Executive Summary: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4953e.pdf
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing
poverty have been met by many countries, yet many others lag behind and the post-2015
challenge will be the full eradication of poverty and hunger. Many developing
countries increasingly recognize that social protection measures are needed to
relieve the immediate deprivation of people living in poverty and to prevent
others from falling into poverty when a crisis strikes.
Key
messages
·
Social
protection programmes reduce poverty and food insecurity. Effective targeting and adequate transfers are important
determinants of success. Social protection contributes to higher incomes and food
security not only by ensuring increases in consumption, but by enhancing a
household’s ability to produce food and augment income. Programmes targeted at
women have stronger food security and nutrition impacts. Programmes that are
gender-sensitive, reduce women’s time constraints and strengthen their control
over income enhance maternal and child welfare. This is especially important
because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate poverty from generation to
generation.
·
Programmes
targeted at women have stronger food security and nutrition impacts. Programmes that are gender-sensitive, reduce
women’s time constraints and strengthen their control over
income enhance maternal and child welfare. This is
especially important because maternal and child malnutrition perpetuate
poverty from generation to generation.
·
Social
protection stimulates investment in agricultural production and other economic
activities. Social protection enhances nutrition, health and education, with
implications for future productivity, employability, incomes and well-being. Social protection programmes that provide regular and
predictable transfers promote savings and investment in both farm and non-farm
activities, and encourage households to engage in more ambitious activities offering
higher returns.
·
Social
protection does not reduce work effort. But it does give beneficiaries greater choice, and many
shift time previously dedicated to casual agricultural wage employment of last
resort to ownfarm work or non-agricultural employment. Taken together with the
increase in farm and non-farm production activities, social protection
strengthens livelihoods instead of fostering dependency.
·
Social
protection has virtuous impacts on local communities and economies. Public works programmes can provide important
infrastructure and community assets and, when designed and implemented
properly, contribute directly to the local economy. Cash transfers increase the
purchasing power of beneficiary households, who demand goods and services, many
of which are produced or provided in the local economy by non-beneficiary
households. Complementary programmes may be necessary to reduce production
constraints to prevent inflation and maximize the real-income and production
impacts of the programme.
·
Social
protection, by itself, is not enough to move people out of poverty. As poor households typically face multiple constraints
and risks, joint, coordinated and/or aligned social protection and agricultural
programmes are likely to be more effective in helping poor households move out
of poverty in a sustainable manner.
·
There are
clear opportunities to leverage social protection and agriculture programmes
to further rural development. Developing
synergies is an opportunity and also a necessity because of constrained
government budgets. It is imperative to help the poorest meet basic consumption
needs, especially when they are unable to work. Such help can itself become a
foundation for gradual improvement of the livelihoods of the poor. Given that
the majority of the rural poor depend largely on agriculture,
agricultural interventions are needed to overcome structural supply-side
bottlenecks holding back growth. Leveraging public expenditures on agriculture
and social protection programmes in support of each other not only furthers
this transformation, but also serves to strengthen agricultural and rural
development.
· A national vision is needed of how agriculture and social protection can gradually move people out of poverty and hunger. National vision and commitment, supported by permanent domestic resource mobilization, must support coordinated action at the national and subnational levels. Policy and planning frameworks for rural development, poverty reduction, food security and nutrition need to articulate the role of agriculture and social protection in moving people out of poverty and hunger, together with a broader set of interventions. The type of agricultural interventions combined with social assistance depends on the context and constraints, but must also consider issues such as local implementation capacities and available resources. In all cases, interventions must be designed to address a range of constraints to allow the poorest to transform their livelihood strategies to escape and remain out of poverty.