The political economy and the global food crisis

• The solutions offered by the delegates at the Rome food summit confirmed a continuing faith in interventions that have failed to address the fundamental cause of food emergencies.
• Over the last 50 years, technology has increased world food production by 30 per cent, yet the number of hungry people has continued to grow.
• The State offers little, if any, social protection measures that would assist those trapped in poverty.

But he proved everyone wrong. Poor borrowers had a payback rate equal or even better than traditional borrowers. Mr Yunus’ experiment is now considered a model for poverty reduction.

African governments will have to assume the role of guarantor of a minimum standard of living for their citizens by instituting safety net measures.

The most effective way of doing this is by making available small cash grants to the poor, especially older people who are highly represented among the poor.

In a letter to the Financial Times, Stephen Kidd of HelpAge International, an organisation that is at the forefront of advocating for the establishment of national social pension schemes in the developing world, argues that “putting cash directly into the hands of poor people – on a regular and predictable basis – is the best way to reduce poverty”.

The provision of safety nets, especially social pensions and cash grants for citizens is not only a rights issue, it also makes economic sense. People who are healthy, educated and well-fed contribute to economic activity.

The growing acceptance of this argument in development circles has not meant absence of resistance. This resistance is once again cast in the language of cost-effectiveness and aid dependency.

Yet studies show that the cost of social protection, including non-contributory and other cash grants, would amount to less than 2 per cent of GDP.

The solutions offered by the delegates in Rome, therefore, amounted to telling poor people who have no money and no state assistance: “We will make food available so that you can buy it.”

In 1775, Antoinette offered a similarly impossible solution to the food crisis in France.

Mr Ngugi is a journalist working in Namibia.