Event - Seasons of Hunger book launch
Seasons of Hunger
Book Launch
16 October 2008 – World Food Day
At the Institute of Development Studies, more than fifty people attended a book launch and discussion about the seasonality of hunger.
The launch was the first of three events with a similar launch at the Overseas Development Initiative (ODI) and at the Department of International Development (Dfid).
At IDS, Lawrence Hadad (Director of IDS and FAC member) chaired the event and each of the authors presented on this important topic.
Authors (right to left): Samuel Hauenstein Swan, Stephen Devereux, Bapu Vaitla, and Foreward by Robert Chambers.
Press Release
New York, NY
Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF)
The international humanitarian organization Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF) announces the release of Seasons of Hunger: Fighting Cycles of Quiet Starvation Among the World’s Rural Poor. Produced by Hunger Watch, ACF’s policy research and advocacy department, the publication focuses on the role that seasonality plays in the persistence of global malnutrition.
Seasons of Hunger sheds light on the devastating link between predictable cycles of food insecurity and the prevalence of famine; the publication asks why so little is done when cyclical hunger is so routine, predictable, and preventable.
Most of the world’s poor live in rural areas dependent on agricultural and livestock economies. For these households, poverty, hunger and illness are highly dynamic phenomena, changing dramatically over the course of a year in response to production, price and climatic cycles. When acute hunger occurs, it is not typically due to conflict or natural disaster, but as result of the “hunger season”—that annually recurring period when existing harvest stocks have dwindled, little food is available on the market, and prices shoot upward. This results, predictably, in cycles of hunger that can be devastating.
The costs of overlooking seasonality are enormous: shrinking food stocks, rising prices, and a lack of income contribute to spikes in malnutrition, mortality, and hunger-related illnesses. In the report’s foreword, Robert Chambers of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, writes that “the situation cries out for action.” Drawing on field research in Malawi, India, Niger, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Namibia, Seasons of Hunger demonstrates that there presents a wide range of effective strategies for preventing seasonal hunger.
Through testimonies and case studies, the book traces the real costs of cyclical hunger on vulnerable communities around the world. “This book is a powerful corrective. It brings a new perspective and proposals for action that are new in their scope and focus,” notes Robert Chambers. “It shows how central seasonality is to the creation and deepening of deprivation.”
Resources
Presentations:
Seasonality and High Food Prices:
A double challenge
by Stephen Devereaux
Seasonality and High Food Prices: a Double Challenge
by Samuel Hauenstein Swan
Building a Common Foundation for Fighting Seasonal Hunger
by Bapu Vaitla
