Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Zimbabwe: Structural Adjustment, Destitution and Food Insecurity
Author:Chattopadhyay, RupakISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Review of African Political Economy
Volume:27
Issue:84
Period:June
Pages:307-316
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:economic policy
food policy
famine
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
Politics and Government
international relations
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240008704461
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=400EBA1E15930C4CEB0A
Abstract:This article examines the persistence of hunger in food surplus Zimbabwe during the 1990s. It combines a discussion of the literature on hunger with an analysis of the Zimbabwean economic structural adjustment programme (ESAP) using the 'entitlements' theory, which treats starvation as the inevitable outcome of a collapse in effective demand for food. Proponents of the entitlements approach have successfully pointed out that generalizations drawn from aggregate variables such as food availability per capita imply nothing about the distribution of food. The article questions the extent to which ESAP and increased food production have contributed to food security and welfare. It notes that destitution resulting from structural adjustment policies has increased food insecurity by eroding the purchasing power of large sections of the population. The article further argues that in addition to economic causes, destitution is exacerbated by the effective lack of accountability on the part of the key decisionmakers. The Zimbabwean example shows that increasing the supply of food to a population is insufficient to mitigate starvation; increased supply needs to be matched by adequate means for the population to consume the produce. Bibliogr., sum.
Views
Cover