Although wild natural resources are a standard dietary component in southern Africa, little information exists on these resources' specific role in the maintenance of household food security among HIV-impacted households. In this context, the influence of cash savings or income generated through use or sale of natural resources (e.g., using fuelwood instead of electricity to be able to afford to buy food) is also not known.

El dramático aumento y la volatilidad de los precios de los alimentos durante el último año han sacudido al sistema alimentario mundial. Por lo general, tanto los gobiernos como la comunidad dedicada al desarrollo internacional han respondido ante diversos aspectos de la crisis alimentaria, pero todavía permanecen las preguntas sobre si se han tomado o no las acciones más adecuadas, cuál es la mejor forma de responder y qué nos aguarda en el futuro.

"The dramatic rise and volatility of food prices over the last year have shaken the global food system. Governments and the international development community generally have responded to various aspects of the food crisis, but questions remain about whether the right actions are being pursued, how best to respond, and what the future holds.

The report includes three essays about Responding to the World Food Crisis: Getting on the Right Track by Joachim von Braun, High Global Food Prices: The Challenges and Opportunities by Josette Sheeran, and Policy Implications of High Food Prices for Africa by Namanga Ngongi.

"African agriculture is at a crossroads. The current high food prices and the instability they have provoked in several countries have added impetus for African countries to review their agricultural policies and programs. New agricultural policies will have to be more focused on staple food crops and on their main producers-smallholders, most of whom are women. The new policies must remove constraints that impede access by smallholder farmers to the knowledge, technology, and financial services they need to increase farm productivity in a profitable and environmentally sustainable manner.

Agricultural growth will prove essential for improving the welfare of the vast majority of Africa’s poor. Roughly 80 percent of the continent’s poor live in rural areas, and even those who do not will depend heavily on increasing agricultural productivity to lift them out of poverty. Seventy percent of all Africans— and nearly 90 percent of the poor—work primarily in agriculture. As consumers, all of Africa’s poor—both urban and rural—count heavily on the efficiency of the continent’s farmers.

Las instituciones de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad moldean la forma en que la gente usa los recursos naturales.A su vez, estos patrones de uso afectan los resultados de los sistemas de producción agrícola de la gente. Juntos, los mecanismos de acción colectiva y los sistemas de derechos de propiedad definen los incentivos a los que la gente accede por llevar a cabo estrategias de gestión sostenible y productiva, y afectan el nivel y distribución de los beneficios de los recursos naturales.

This brief defines property rights and collective action and discusses the links to sustainability of natural resource management and agricultural systems and to poverty reduction, as well as the implications for policy and practice.

Fisheries are complex and interdependent ecological and social systems that require integrated management approaches. The actions of one person or group of users affect the availability of the resource for others. Managing such common pool resources requires conscious efforts by a broad range of stakeholders to organize and craft rules enabling equitable and sustainable use of the resources for everyone?s benefit. Collective action is often a prerequisite for the development of community-based institutions and the devolution of authority...

In this brief, we explore the role that social institutions -specifically property rights and collective action - may play in the development of agroforestry.... In the future, property rights and collective action will play increasingly pivotal roles in defining rights and responsibilities over the externalities of tree management practices.

Gender differences in health and nutrition have long been a subject of study in the intrahousehold allocation literature. Unlike consumption expenditures or farm production, measurements of health and nutritional outcomes are always at the individual level, and thus factors that underlie systematic differences in outcomes—such as age, gender, and position within the household—are more readily apparent.

It is a well-known fact that households in developing countries often undergo weather-related and other shocks that drastically affect incomes. A large and growing literature explores the effectiveness of response to these events. One strand of the literature addresses the strategies that households and governments use to protect against income shocks (Udry 1990; Fafchamps, Udry, and Czukas 1998; Kochar 1999). A second strand looks at the effectiveness of these strategies in reducing fluctuations in consumption.