Hidden Hunger in Rural Tanzania: What Can Qualitative Research Tell Us About What To Do About Chronic Food Insecurity?

Abstract

This paper is part of a series of working papers making use of a qualitative, life history dataset developed by the CPRC in Tanzania. It investigates the experience of hunger, its causes and consequences, the strategies people use to prevent it, and derives a set of policy implications. The most food insecure people depend on wage labor, so controlling food price inflation and improving wages and working conditions for poor casual laborers would be one priority. Buffers against hunger can easily erode for vulnerable older people, separated, divorced or widowed women, and such people need to be protected against the possible loss of their assets or access to resources. Knowledge is also a powerful tool against hunger – people at local level could use more and better information about nutrition, suggesting that a revival of the once successful community nutrition programme would help.

Keywords: vulnerability, assets, agriculture, Tanzania, hunger