A leverage points perspective on institutions for food security in a smallholder-dominated landscape in southwestern Ethiopia

Joern Fischer,Tolera Senbeto Jiren,Maraja Riechers,Arvid Bergsten

doi:10.1007/s11625-021-00936-9

Abstract

Despite concerted efforts, achieving the goal of universal food security remains challenging. Food security interventions occur at different levels of systemic depth. Some interventions target visible supply-side gaps, while others focus on deeper systemic problems in the food system. Here, we used a leverage points perspective to ask how multiple types of more superficial (shallow) and more fundamental (deep) interventions in the food system interact. Focusing on a case study in southwestern Ethiopia, we examined (1) recent changes in formal and informal institutions related to food security; (2) the effects of formal and informal institutions on the food system at different levels of systemic depth (i.e., on parameters, feedbacks, design, and intent); and (3) issues of institutional interplay between formal and informal institutions. We surveyed 150 rural households and analyzed key policy documents. Both formal and informal institutions were perceived to improve food security. However, at the intent level, formal institutions primarily aimed to enhance food supply, while informal institutions additionally sought to build trust among farmers. At the design level, formal interventions targeted information flow through a newly created agricultural extension system, while informal institutions facilitated labor sharing and communication. In terms of institutional interplay, new formal institutions had partly undermined pre-existing informal institutions. We conclude that both visible supply-side gaps and deeper drivers of food insecurity should be targeted through food security interventions. Interventions need to be cognizant of potentially unexpected ways of institutional interplay, especially between formal and informal institutions.

Highlights

Food insecurity is one of the most pressing contemporary problems, for countries in the global south (FAO 2019)
On one side of the spectrum, some interviewees reported that strengthened informal social networks and local cooperation as well as experiential learning, all partly facilitated by informal institutions, had improved food security in some cases
On the other side of the spectrum, respondents perceiving a decrease in food security stated land scarcity, a decline in land productivity, increased population and the deterioration of informal institutions as reasons for this decline

Summary

Introduction

Food insecurity is one of the most pressing contemporary problems, for countries in the global south (FAO 2019). This framing often translates into interventions that seek to optimize efficiency in agricultural production, and targets the supply-side constraint of food insecurity—it is a framing that is dominant in many parts of the global south, especially in Africa (Africa Development Bank 2014) This framing, pays minimal attention to other, sometimes underlying causes of food insecurity such as institutional interplay or power imbalances— i.e., it only focuses on food availability, while other dimensions of food security, such as access or dietary diversity, are glossed over (Wittman 2011; Holt-Giménez and Altieri 2012). Despite rich scholarly evidence showing that a primary focus on agricultural efficiency optimization on its own does not change the dynamics causing food insecurity (Sen 1992, 1981; McKeon 2014), this type of framing remains dominant in numerous countries of the global south (Africa Development Bank 2014; Jiren et al 2020)

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