As a continuation of the qualitative assessment of the impact of global crises (fuel, food, and financial), conducted from 2008 to 2010 (part of a five-country study coordinated by IDS), SMERU is participating in a four-year study supported by Oxfam GB and IDS under the title Ensuring Food and Nutrition Security in a Time of Volatility. This cross-country study is an important component of Oxfam’s global, four-year GROW campaign on food security in a resource-constrained world, guaranteeing a high profile in communications and influencing work in a range of multilateral and national forums.
During 2015, the research team has completed all the field notes, and drafted the year-3 national report and an article to be published in IDS Bulletin. The research coordinator, together with the coordinators from other countries and the IDS-Oxfam global team, attended a meeting to prepare articles for a special edition of the IDS Bulletin, or a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of IDS, with the theme “Life in A Time of Food Price Volatility”. In addition, the research team was also preparing year 4 activities plan consisted of series of research dissemination events in the sample villages and sample districts as well as at national level, finalizing year-3 report and developing final systesis report for the whole study.
The overall purpose of this research project is to document the experience of the poor in facing food price volatility, in a form that enables common, policy-relevant insights into how food price volatility plays out in developing countries.
This four-year qualitative study started in 2012 and was conducted in three villages located in Kabupaten Bekasi, Cianjur, and Banjar, which were visited every year for three-year period (2012, 2013 and 2014). The third phase of the study (started in 2014) was focusing on “Changing food habits: views on processed and unsafe foods”, with field work conducted in September 2014.
