Food Security As Peacebuilding: Analyzing the Relationship between Food Security and Conflict Data to Support Empirical Policy Making

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Martin-Shields ◽  
Wolfgang Stojetz
Author(s):  
Nina TERREY ◽  
Sabine JUNGINGER

The relationship that exists between design, policies and governance is quite complex and presents academic researchers continuously with new opportunities to engage and explore aspects relevant to design management. Over the past years, we have witnessed how the earlier focus on developing policies for design has shifted to an interest in understanding the ways in which design contributes to policy-making and policy implementation. Research into policies for design has produced insights into how policy-making decisions can advance professional impact and opportunities for designers and the creative industries. This research looked into how design researchers and design practitioners themselves can benefit from specific policies that support design activities and create the space for emerging design processes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
David A. Wiss ◽  
Marjan Javanbakht ◽  
Michael J. Li ◽  
Michael Prelip ◽  
Robert Bolan ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: To understand the relationship between drug use, food insecurity (FI), and mental health among men who have sex with men (MSM). Design: Cohort study (2014-2019) with at least one follow-up. Setting: Visits at 6-month intervals included self-assessment for FI and depressive symptoms. Urine testing results confirmed drug use. Factors associated with FI were assessed using multiple logistic regression with random effects for repeated measures. General structural equation modeling tested whether FI mediates the relationship between drug use and depressive symptoms. Participants: Data were from HIV-positive and high-risk HIV negative MSM in Los Angeles, CA (n=431; 1,192 visits). Results: At baseline, FI was reported by 50.8% of participants, depressive symptoms in 36.7%, and 52.7% of urine screening tests were positive for drugs (i.e., marijuana, opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy). A positive drug test was associated with a 96% increase in the odds of being food insecure (95% CI: 1.26-3.07). Compared to those with high food security, individuals with very low food security have a nearly 7-fold increase in the odds of reporting depressive symptoms (95% CI: 3.71-11.92). Findings showed 14.9% of the association between drug use (exposure) and depressive symptoms (outcome) can be explained by FI (mediator). Conclusion: The prevalence of FI among this cohort of HIV-positive and high-risk HIV-negative MSM was high; the association between drug use and depressive symptoms was partially mediated by FI. Findings suggest that enhancing access to food and nutrition may improve mood in the context of drug use, especially among MSM at risk for HIV-transmission.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Wei ◽  
Yuanjun Zhu ◽  
Hao Li ◽  
Kebin Zhang ◽  
Baitian Wang ◽  
...  

The abandonment and cultivation of croplands in the Eurasian Steppe has become the focus of global and regional food security and agricultural policy-making. A large area of cropland in some post-Soviet countries has proven to be abandoned with the disintegration of the Soviet Union; however, it is unclear as to whether Kazakhstan also experienced a similar change as one of the main food providers for the former Soviet Union. In this study, we used the annual land cover dataset (1992–2015) from the European Space Agency, Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI) to detect spatio-temporal characteristics of rainfed and irrigated cropland changes in Kazakhstan. The Mann–Kendall test and regime shift analysis showed that rainfed and irrigated cropland at national level had a significant increasing trend with a significant rising up to 1999 and stagnation during 2000–2015, which was further confirmed with analysis at 14 regions. The greatest contributor to rainfed and irrigated croplands was steppes, followed by shrinkage of water bodies since 2005 to a great extent, rapid urbanization process resulted in losses of a part of irrigated oases. The trend surface analysis indicated that reorganized stable pattern characterized by rainfed cropland in north and irrigated cropland in south was driven by the strategy of the gradual agricultural development of oases. The nonexistence of cycle between the abandonment and recultivation proved that newly-gained cropland from steppe may be less degraded and more productive for sustainable land use in Kazakhstan. In conclusion, this study can provide strong evidence for sustainable land use and a basis for food security policy-making in Kazakhstan, and even all of the Central Asian countries in the future.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Fernando Herran ◽  
Eduardo Villamor ◽  
Doris Cristina Quintero-Lesmes

Abstract Background: A common recommendation is to reduce the consumption of snack food and replace this consumption with nutrient-dense foods. The objective was to establish whether there were changes in adherence to the consumption of the snack pattern (SP) in Colombian children and adults in the 2010-2015 quinquennium. In addition, this study aimed to establish the relationship between the SP and some biological, socioeconomic, and geographic variables in Colombia, Sur América. Methods: Based on a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) applied both in 2010 and 2015 in the national nutritional situation surveys, the adherence to the snack consumption pattern was established through factor analysis. The change in the adherence of consumption to the SP was established for the five-year period [2015 minus 2010], using multiple linear regression models. Crude and adjusted differences were estimated by the following covariables: sex, age, marital status, food security, wealth index, ethnicity, education of the head of the household, area and region. In total, 37,981 subjects were analyzed. In 2010, 10,150 children (5 to 17 years old) and 5,145 adults (18 to 64 years old) were included, and in 2015, 13,243 children and 9,443 adults. Results: In children, the adjusted difference in the adherence to SP was -0.37 (95% CI: -0.42, -0.32), p < 0.0001. In adults, the adjusted difference in the adherence to SP was -0.27 (95% CI: -0.31, -0.24), p < 0.0001. In all categories of covariables, consumption decreased, for all p < 0.0001. In children the decrease in consumption was inversely associated with body mass index (BMI) and height and was directly associated with the level of food security in the home and the wealth index. In adults the decrease in consumption was inversely related to age and BMI and directly related to the size, the level of food security of the household, wealth index, and education level. Conclusions: In the quinquennium there is a decrease in the adherence to the SP, the region, the wealthiest, the tallest, the best BMI and the most educated displayed the greatest decrease in the SP. Keywords Food Pattern; Snack Pattern; Intake of Snack; Children; Adults; Colombia.


Politologija ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-55
Author(s):  
Tomas Janeliūnas

This article raises the question of what role does the presidential institution hold in the Lithuanian foreign policy formation mechanism and how a particular actor (president) can change their powers in foreign policy without going beyond the functions formally defined in the Constitution. The period of President Grybauskaitė’s term and her efforts as an actor to define her role in shaping Lithuanian foreign policy are analyzed. This is assessed in the context of the activities and behavior of former Lithuanian presidents and in the context of relations with other institutions involved in foreign policy making – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Seimas in particular. This article analyzes the relationship between the actor (Grybauskaitė) and the already established structure of domestic foreign policy formation and the ability of the actor to change this structure. The analysis suggests that it is precisely because of the choices made by Grybauskaite during 2009–2019 that a relationship between the structures of foreign policy making in Lithuania has changed considerably, and that the center of power of foreign policy formation has shifted to the presidency.


Author(s):  
Christopher Barrett ◽  
Erin C. Lentz

This article examines hunger and food insecurity in relation to poverty. Evidence shows that food insecurity is overwhelmingly concentrated in developing countries, even as it also exists in wealthy countries. Today, food insecurity remains widespread in large measure because extreme poverty remains widespread, and vice versa. However, the relationship between poverty and food insecurity is complex and bidirectional. This article first reviews concepts and definitions related to food security before discussing the major approaches used to measure food insecurity. It then explains why measurement matters and why it remains so challenging and proceeds by providing a historical overview of hunger and food insecurity. It also analyzes the causes of hunger and food insecurity and interventions intended to reduce hunger and food insecurity. Finally, it suggests directions for future research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 877-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet Conker

Turkey is fully engaged in its “hydraulic mission,” very extensively and rapidly “developing” water resources throughout its territory. The extensive hydraulic development attempts conducted by the Turkish government create local, national, inter-state, and transnational contestations among the different interest groups. A great deal of scholarly literature has analyzed the rationale behind Turkey's massive-scale hydraulic development. While some studies link Turkey's hydraulic mission to its energy and food security, others highlight the importance of domestic conflicts, as in the case of the Kurdish issue in the southeast. However, few works examine the relationship between hydraulic development and state- and nation-making processes in the early period of the republic. This paper seeks to analyze the role of hydraulic development in state- and nation-making in the context of Turkey by looking at the institutional documents published by official authorities and speeches made by key politicians. Drawing mainly upon the theory of water nationalism and its related conceptual frameworks, this study argues that hydraulic development has formed one of the important components of the modernization process in Turkey, thereby playing a significant role in its state- and nation-making processes.


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