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The influence of emergency food aid on the causal disaster vulnerability of Indigenous food systems

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Abstract

Emergency food aid is the dominant humanitarian response to food insecurity precipitated by disasters. There is a significant literature on food aid effectiveness (e.g., bolstering food security, targeting, modality selection) in various disaster contexts. Additionally, there are some studies on the potential disincentive effects on agricultural production among other unintended consequences. However, there has been no explicit research on the possible effects of emergency food aid on the causal disaster vulnerability of Indigenous food systems. This research, based within the remote Bedamuni tribe of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, addresses this gap. The Bedamuni first received emergency food aid in response to the 1997 El Niño drought, followed by the 2015/16 El Niño and February 2018 Highlands earthquake. We identify first sustained contact (1962), the subsequent establishment of a mission (1968), and the societal changes that followed as more pronounced drivers of vulnerability. However, emergency food aid exacerbates several key determinants of vulnerability such as declining self-efficacy and adaptive capacity, in addition to encouraging unsustainable food system practices. This paper argues for a more holistic understanding of causal vulnerability in food systems and renewed critique regarding the use of emergency food aid in rural Indigenous contexts.

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Notes

  1. For this paper the term food aid instead of food assistance is used, although we acknowledge that some organisations now use the term food assistance. The rationale for this transition is provided in Harvey et al. (2010) and Omamo et al. (2010).

  2. Identified through data collected for aid distributions in 2016 and 2018 by the World Food Programme coordinator based in Mougulu.

  3. To contextualise this observation, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, wild game, while never truly abundant due to over-hunting and habitat loss when compared to surrounding tribes (Dwyer and Minnegal 1999) was nevertheless said to have declined in abundance.

Abbreviations

EFA:

Emergency food aid

SES:

Socioecological systems

PNG:

Papua New Guinea

WFP:

World Food Programme

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Acknowledgements

I would like to formally acknowledge the following people. The Bedamuni people who welcomed the author on to their lands and engaged so deeply with the research. Special thanks go to Martin Kaipale, Boboma, and Felebe who were the main research assistants throughout the many multi-day walks to villages, without you this study would not have been possible. Dr Karen McNamara and Dr Bradd Witt at the University of Queensland are acknowledged for their support, guidance, and comments and suggestions on several earlier drafts. Lastly, Georgia Kaipu and her colleagues at the National Research Institute of Papua New Guinea (NRIPNG) are acknowledged for helping me secure a research permit and visa.

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    Guy Jackson

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Jackson, G. The influence of emergency food aid on the causal disaster vulnerability of Indigenous food systems. Agric Hum Values 37, 761–777 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-10006-7

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