Growth and Social Protection – Stephen Devereux

Outputs

  • Working Papers Series – 7 papers based on secondary sources based on FAO / FAC work – intersection between seasonality, SP and smallholder ag, country cases (3 FAC countries + Ghana + overviews + seasonality)
  • FAC briefing papers – summarising longer working papers
  • ODI NR perspective – Malawi input subsidy team
  • Seasons of Hunger – Hunger Watch + FAC
  • All above signal new theme on seasonality, SP and smallholders – brought in Robert Chambers
  • Another book – Social Protection in Africa – Frank Ellis + Philip White – not FAC product

Discussion

A lot going on – impressive

  • Portfolio of activities – lesson on how to do things with such a strange budget profile
  • Seasonality – 20 years ago people were addressing; why did it get dropped off the agenda? How will this research put it back on the agenda and how will it be kept on? A: Reason for the conference will be to address that issue. Structural adjustment removed a whole set of buffers that smooth food pricing, etc. and ignored financial market failures (seasonal finance). Need to develop theory and get it back in undergraduate degree programmes. Bangladesh is a place where gov’t is addressing this.
  • Give list of possible research plans how will you select priorities? FAC team have own preferences – e.g., seasonality, SP and pastoral areas; 1-year cycle; etc. But some will be demand-driven. Will use time after Seasonality conference to discuss.
  • Scoping study on Climate Change Adaptation, Social Protection and Agriculture – IDS Climate Change team leading in SE Asia, soon E Africa
  • RiPPLE – Household studies in N Ethiopia – seasonal water availability and hh strategies