Paper details
| Paper authors | Susanne Jaspars |
| In panel on | Taking ideology out of humanitarianism? The everyday, corporate interests and the politics of global solidarity |
| Paper presenter(s) will be presenting |
In-Person / |
Abstract
Co-author: C.Sathyamala
This paper examines North–South linkages in the politics of digital food assistance and social welfare, in particular corporate sector engagement. It examines whether digital technologies actually improve access to food for marginalised and crisis-affected populations, and what other political and economic effects they have. We consider contrasting case studies of Sudan, India and the UK which have seen persistently high levels of acute malnutrition or rising levels of hunger (as in the case of the UK), as well as the introduction of new digital assistance. In the past decade Sudan has seen a shift from emergency food aid to digital cash interventions, including the establishment of a new national cash-based Family Support Programme (FSP). India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) has been undergoing digital transformation since 2010. In the UK, welfare has been digital by default since 2012 and from 2016 assistance for asylum seekers is through debit cards and uses biometrics. The Covid pandemic has accelerated processes of digitalisation. In this paper, we show remarkable similarities in the effects of digitalisation across the globe; in each context digital food assistance is likely to lead to exclusions of already politically marginalised groups and raises issues linked to identity, surveillance and profit. On the other hand, evidence of protests indicates a growing opposition to the digitalisation of bodies and lives. The paper builds on an earlier one presented at the EADI-ISS conference in July this year.
