A Regional Approach to Analysis of Food Security Framework and Policies of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

<p>Food security is always a concern for consumers, but especially for those in West Africa, where the population of food insecure people has continued to grow over the past decade despite attempts by initiatives such as the World Food Program and the establishment of Millennium Development Goals. The people of West Africa are subject to repetitive natural disasters and are often in political upheaval. Many economic policies have been established to mitigate the impact that production disasters have on the consumers; one of these policies is the utilization of regional food reserves.</p> <p>In 2010, the Economic Community of West African States began to develop a Regional Food Reserve. To analyze the effect a Regional Food Reserve could have on West African consumers due to a production shock, a spatial partial equilibrium model was utilized to analyze reserve stock management and its impact on price behavior and food security at a regional level.</p> <p>The model allowed for projected increases in population and gross domestic product (GDP). After creating a deterministic base year for 2013, 2018, and 2023, the impact of a production shock (based on historical and projected data) was simulated. Analysis of these shocks suggests the maximum reserve size needed to address the greatest decrease in consumption is approximately 187 (1000MT).</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Agricultural Economics (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Shear, Hannah Elizabeth

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wailes, Eric J.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Buysse, Jeroen
• Diagne, Mandiaye

• Social sciences
• Biological sciences
• Food security
• Regional food reserve
• Rice
• African Studies
• Agricultural Economics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1335

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uark.edu:etd-2334