Women's dual centrality in food security solutions: The need for a stronger gender lens in food systems' transformation

Food Insecurity: A Barrier to Reproductive Justice Globally

Objective: Reproductive Justice identifies three core reproductive rights for all people: (1) the right to not have a child; (2) the right to have a child; and (3) the right to parent children in safe and healthy environments. We aim to illustrate that food insecurity infringes upon on all three of these rights and so is a pressing issue for reproductive justice and for sexual and reproductive health more broadly. Methods: Using a phenomenological approach, we outline potential pathways between food insecurity and reproductive justice. Results: There are numerous potential pathways between food insecurity and reproductive justice, including entry into sexual relationships for material support, links to sexually transmitted infections and infertility, structural violence, prioritization and spending tradeoffs between food and other basic necessities, biological impacts of malnutrition, restricted reproductive choices, population control measures, and social stigma and exclusion. Marginalized people are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and its consequences, with implications for sexual health and pleasure and for reproductive justice. Conclusions:Meaningful and equitable collaboration between people with lived experience of food insecurity, human rights and reproductive justice activists, and academics is critical to sensitively contextualize this work and mobilize broader social change.

Public-private partnership generates economic benefits to smallholder bean growers in Uganda

The quest to transform and hasten the role of smallholder farms in agricultural development and food security through farmer-firm linkages has dominated development interventions in low-income countries for several decades. This has mostly been pursued through single- or multi-contract schemes implemented in isolation. Several studies have analyzed the effects of these schemes on smallholder farms with mixed results. A new paradigm is to use Agricultural Public Private Partnership (Ag-PPP) to achieve wider and sustainable impacts. However, limited empirical evidence exists on the effects of Ag-PPP interventions and targeting the same farmer. We address this research gap by assessing the impact of an Ag-PPP on small-scale common bean producers in Uganda. We use a doubly robust difference-in-difference approach in a multi-treatment setting to estimate these impacts. The results show that the PPP created positive outcomes for farmers and stimulated increased production from targeted interventions. Evidence shows that the PPP and its interventions were associated with significant increases in productivity, sales volumes, and shares of output marketed. Receiving bundled interventions had greater effects than a single intervention and effects varied between men and women bean crop owners. Results suggest that providing bundled interventions through a PPP can increase productivity and alleviate market access constraints. The outcomes of this Ag-PPP could be modified for other contexts i.e., crops and localities, to inform food and development policy elsewhere.

Food insecurity and symptoms of anxiety and depression disorder during the COVID- 19 pandemic: COVID-Inconfidentes, a population-based survey

This study aimed to investigate the association between adult food insecurity (FI) and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) in two Brazilian cities during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study used data derived from a cross-sectional survey of 1693 adults. Interviews were conducted using an electronic questionnaire. The FI was measured using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 was used to measure the symptoms of GAD. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was used for MDD symptoms. The association between FI, GAD, and MDD symptoms was investigated using a Poisson regression model with robust variance to estimate the prevalence ratio and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). In regression models, a linear association between FI levels and outcomes was observed, with severe food insecurity having a 3.56 higher prevalence of GAD symptoms (95% CI: 2.23, 5.68) and a 3.03 higher prevalence of MDD (95% CI: 1.55, 5.90). In the stratified analyses, worse results were observed for females and males, individuals with non-white race/skin color, those without children, and those with lower monthly family income. In conclusion, the FI was associated with symptoms of GAD and MDD, and the sociodemographic characteristics interfered in this association. Therefore, we recommend the improvement of public health and social protection policies for food-insecure people.

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FI was consistently associated with symptoms of GAD and MDD during the pandemic.

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FI is linearly associated with anxiety and depression symptoms.

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Participants at any FI level had more negative feelings (e.g., depressed mood).

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The mental health impact of FI is sensitive to sociodemographic characteristics.

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The results obtained may contribute to the cross-cultural consistency of the theme.

The Effects of Pandemics on the Vulnerability of Food Security in West Africa—A Scoping Review

The purpose of this paper was to show the effects of the Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics on food security vulnerability in West Africa. The methodology is based on a scoping literature review using the PRISMA method. The study showed that food security was affected by the restrictive measures in the different West African countries. In addition, it shows that this region is highly vulnerable to such crises, which can combine their effects with those of other events such as climate change and civil unrest. In both pandemics, all pillars of food security were affected. The effects on urban and rural centers may be very different. The study suggests a better understanding of the differences between rural and urban centers and between men and women and how long-term restraint measures can affect rural areas where agriculture is the main lever for reducing food insecurity. Food security must be seriously considered by governments when implementing restrictive measures during a pandemic. Consideration of health factors alone at the expense of food security can greatly exacerbate health problems and even increase cases of disease.