Paper details
| Paper authors | Susanne Jaspars |
| In panel on | Bringing Political Economy back to Centre-Stage |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
This paper analyses the changing political economy of food assistance in Sudan and Somalia. Both countries experience long-term humanitarian crisis and have received food aid for more than fifty years. Food aid has changed from bilateral loans, to emergency in-kind aid, to various forms of cash and digitalised assistance. It has become an intimate part of each country’s political economy, which has changed over time with changing aid practices, governance and conflict dynamics. The paper combines concepts of political economy and ‘political marketplace’ with ‘regimes of practices’ to understand the effects of the changing combination of aid practices and theories, and the organisations, businesses, and authorities involved. It argues that while giving the impression of greater efficiency and accountability, the involvement of financial service institutions (e.g. banks, money transfer telecommunications), data management companies, as well as traders, in cash transfer programmes leads to new forms of political manipulation, profit-making and motivations for maintaining displacement and marginalisation. At the same time, those involved in food aid transport or procurement in earlier years have moved into other political and economic ventures. These aspects of food assistance are rarely examined by humanitarian actors but have serious implications for humanitarian principles. The paper builds on research done in 2019/20 with Guhad Adan and Nisar Majid in Somalia, in 2021 with Youssif El-Tayeb in Sudan, and with C.Sathyamala on digital food assistance.
Back