On the Edge: The Role of Food-based Safety Nets in Helping Vulnerable Households Manage Food Insecurity

Abstract

This is the opening paragraph of Ravallion (2003) and seems to condemn all safety nets, whether transferred in food or cash, as putting brakes on the economic development process. But as Ravallion demonstrates, a wide body of evidence now exists that indicates there are many circumstances in which safety nets, as part of carefully planned social protection policies, can be a springboard for the poor to escape poverty. Ravallion identifies a number of reasons why the trade-off between economic growth and lower inequality fostered by public transfers may be a false one. The most fundamental of which is the existence of the human basal metabolic rate — without an adequate food energy intake to support the functioning of the human body at rest, there can be no productive activity at all. Thus, transfers that ensure beneficiaries can meet at least some measure above minimum energy requirements are essential if people are to contribute to economic growth.

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