Every year, millions of poor rural people across the world suffer from predictable and preventable seasonal hunger. Seasonal fluctuations in food stocks, prices and employment are responsible for much of the malnutrition and poverty that the Millennium Development Goals are targetting, yet seasonality gets very little attention in policy formulation and programme design.

 

The objective of this meeting, held on World Food Day, was to discuss the consequences of seasonality on hunger and malnutrition as well as the impacts of shocks, like the recent and ongoing food price crisis.

 

A new book, 'Seasons of Hunger' was also presented. It documents the failure of past and current policies to recognise and address seasonal dimensions of poverty. ‘Seasons of Hunger’ also reveals encouraging success stories, and provides a costed programme for a minimum intervention package to fight seasonal hunger globally.

Stephen Devereux - Research Fellow and Director of the Centre for Social Protection 
Robert Chambers - Research Associate, Institute of Development Studies 
Bapu Vaitla - Hunger Watch/Action Against Hunger 
Samuel Hauenstein Swan - Hunger Watch/Action Against Hunger 
 
Chair:

James Darcy - Director of Programmes, Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI