Strategic Meeting of WFP on “School Feeding: Feed Minds, Change Lives” Bellagio, Italy, July16, 2009

1. Access to Food: Safety Nets and
Hunger Solutions for the Most Needy
Joachim von Braun
International Food Policy Research Institute
Strategic Meeting of WFP on “School Feeding: Feed Minds, Change Lives”
Bellagio, Italy, July16, 2009

2. Social safety nets
and the food and financial crises
 Many governments effectively used existing
safety net programs to mitigate impacts of the
food crisis, though political constraints
sometimes limited the response
 But some governments did not expand safety
nets
 This is an vital period to reexamine the role of
social safety nets, particularly regarding
securing access to food
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

3. Key actions that need to be taken
(Conclusions of IFPRI’ activity on “the poorest and the
hungry” 2006-2008; Beijing)
1. Promote inclusive growth with emphasis on
rural growth and –in many countries - on
agriculture
2. Enhance access to assets, infrastructure,
markets
3. Strengthen and move faster to social protection
4. Accelerate investments in health, nutrition,
education, particularly for children and women
5. Include the excluded
The mix is different for different countries and regions
(Africa, Asia, and Latin America)
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

4. Growth, poverty reduction, and hunger (1)
For poor (very poor) households, a 10% increase
in income increases caloric acquisition by 3% (5%)
“Income growth and hunger reduction are
tightly wedded”
and
of the 10 low income countries that reduced
hunger index the fastest since 1990, 8 are also
among the top 10 in agricultural growth
BUT
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

5. Growth, poverty reduction, and hunger (2)
“Income growth and pre-school malnutrition
are loosely meshed”
The direct effect of income growth on pre-school
nutrition is low, so other investments (targeted
programs aimed at pre-schoolers) are needed
- Note that given the high economic returns to
reducing pre-school malnutrition, these too
are excellent investments!
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

6. Pro-poor social protection and nutrition
interventions needed
Protective actions e.g.:
• Cash transfers
• Employment-based food security programs
Preventive actions e.g.:
• School feeding
• Early childhood nutrition programs
Focus on the most vulnerable:
children, women, excluded groups, the poorest
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

7. Problem zone “under–two”: the most risky age
Weight for age by region
0.5
0.25
NCHS
0
Reference
-0.25
Z-score (NCHS)
-0.5
-0.75
-1
-1.25
-1.5
-1.75
-2
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60
Age (months)
Africa Latin America and Caribbean Asia
But no reason to play the under two’s against school children:
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009
there are important linkagesSource: Shrimpton et al. 2001.

8. Guatemala: Early childhood nutrition impacting
adult education and productivity
Grade attainment Nutritional intervention
27%
(women) among Guatemalan
children 0-7 years old
Cognitive ability 8% (’69-’77)
Reading Follow-up in adults 25-
17%
comprehension 42 years old (’02-04)
Investments in early
childhood nutrition can
Income earned per be long-term drivers of
hour worked 20% economic growth
(men)
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009 Source: Hoddinott et al. 2008. Lancet (in revision).

9. What do we know about safety nets and
access to food? School feeding programs (1)
 Household vs. individual food security
• Careful studies from the Philippines and
Bangladesh show that school-age children keep
most of the calories transferred at school meals
 Quality and size of food transfers
• Larger and more nutritious food transfers were vital
to achieve impacts on learning achievement and
iron status: school meals or take-home rations
providing 1100 kcal of iron-fortified food per day
reduced anemia prevalence among adolescent girls
in Uganda by 18 percentage points
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009 Source: Dan Gilligan, IFPRI, 2009.

10. What do we know about safety nets and
access to food? School feeding programs (2)
Obtain complementarities with education objectives
• In Uganda, separate school meals and take-home rations
programs both improved scores on math achievement tests
and cognitive development tests
• Timing of meals not critical: Learning and cognitive benefits of
FFE programs were similar whether the meals were given at
school or through take-home rations. Improved access to food
was critical.
Potential nutrition benefits to young children
• In Burkina Faso, take-home rations conditional on school
attendance improved the anthropometry of pre-school siblings
of beneficiary children
• In Uganda, school feeding (but not take-home rations)
improved the anthropometry of pre-school age siblings of
beneficiary children possibly through direct spillovers of
fortified food to these siblings
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009 Source: Dan Gilligan, IFPRI, 2009.

11. What do we know about safety nets and
access to food? Conditional cash transfers
Composition of consumption
• Recent evidence from many countries in Latin America
shows that cash transfers from CCTs increased the share
of income spent on food at all income levels.
• May be because most CCTs transfer money to women or
because of complementary messages about the benefits
of good nutrition
Diet composition
• In some countries, CCT transfers led to increased diet
diversification and improved diet quality
Long-term consumption smoothing
• In Nicaragua and Mexico, CCT beneficiaries were better
able to smooth their consumption during economic shocks,
which increased future incomes and access to food
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009 Source: Dan Gilligan, IFPRI, 2009.

12. Issues in designing safety nets
for food security
 Cost-effectiveness
• Safety nets can be expensive to operate
and require perpetual expenditures
• In well-run programs, larger transfers do
have greater impacts
• Effective targeting is an important tool
• The growing body of evidence: the cost-
effectiveness of many programs is higher
than previously thought
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

13. Issues of safety net design
• Transactions costs of systems: administrative
capacity, information, costs
• Switching systems or adding components (CCTs,
employment guarantee)
• Political sustainability of systems: commitment,
structure of institutions
• Innovation and optimization of systems: learning
by doing; series of impact studies and experimental
designs
e.g. IFPRI studies in Mexico (PROGRESA), Brazil (BOLSA),
Turkey (CCT), Bangladesh (FFE), Ethiopia (PSN)
.
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

14. How much is spent on social protection?
• Health (% of GDP)
- Germany, France, Sweden: 7-8%
- India, Somalia, Georgia: < 1%
• Pensions (% of GDP)
- Austria, Greece, Poland: 11-13%
- Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mozambique: < 1%
• Social assistance (% of GDP)
- Pakistan, Peru, Colombia, Chile: < 1%
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009
Source: Dethier 2007.

15. Developing countries: National income,
social spending, and infant mortality
Plot of GOVEXP with GNI Plot of INFANT with GNI (right scale)
Expon. (Plot of GOVEXP with GNI) Expon. (Plot of INFANT with GNI (right scale))
1,600 100
GOVEXP per capita (US$)
90
(per 1000 live births)
1,400
80
1,200
70
INFANT
1,000 60
800 50
600 40
30
400
20
200 10
0 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
GNI per capita (US$)
Source: Data from World Bank 2007 and WHO 2007.
Note: Data for health and education expenditure: 2003-04 or latest year(s) ,
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009 (not earlier than 2000). Data for infant mortality: 2004-05.

16. How to scale up social protection?
• Start with existing institutions and choose
appropriate scale
• Strengthen tax base
• Improve information and incentives
• Create broad-based political and stakeholder
support
• Pursue public–private partnerships
• Draw on global lessons
• Think across institutions: markets, microfinance,
insurance, services
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009

17. The two dual challenges for policy
1. Accelerate growth and its pro-poor
qualities!
2. Accelerate social spending and its
effectiveness!
Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, July 2009