Abstract
This article investigates the New Variant Famine (NVF) hypothesis coined by Alex De Waal during the 2001-2003 Southern African food security crisis, as a tool for analysing food insecurity in the region. The NVF hypothesis depicts a protracted and extensive famine from which there is very little chance of recovery, in which HIV and AIDS are central to the widespread suffering of people. The author suggests that the role of HIV and AIDS on food security be considered as one contributing factor to a dynamic process(es) of vulnerability and not viewed in isolation. In addition it is suggested that analyses focus on underlying processes driving vulnerability and not on specific instances of “famine” or crisis.
Highlights
Between 2001 and 2003 Southern Africa suffered a severe food security crisis
The basic premise by De Waal as well as the most significant points of criticism it has evoked are described in order to determine the use of the New Variant Famine (NVF) hypothesis as a tool for analysing Southern African food security
Whether a famine is viewed as a process or as an event/outcome, there is an apparent impossibility of teasing out the exact extent of the impact of HIV and AIDS at the aggregate level
Summary
Between 2001 and 2003 Southern Africa suffered a severe food security crisis This was not the first crisis of such a nature in the region. De Waal (2003) and De Waal and Whiteside (2003) argued that the food crisis indicated the possibility of a new type of famine, a potentially chronic New Variant Famine (NVF) occurring in the region. The implications of this warning for the region seemed clear enough: HIV and AIDS had to inform interventions aimed at addressing food insecurity. The article concludes by evaluating the NVF hypothesis as a tool for the analysis of Southern African food security
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