Life in a time of Food Price Volatility: 4 years of research in a 4 page infographic

May 5, 2017
IDS and Oxfam have put together a snazzy infographic/executive summary of their four year research project, with links to the main documents for those old fashioned enough to want to read something. What do you think of the format?
Read more >>

Some fascinating new research on how food prices affect people’s lives and politics

April 5, 2016
One of the projects I was proudest of getting off the ground while in (nominal) charge of Oxfam’s research team was ‘Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility’, a four year study of the impact of the chaotic food prices of recent years on the lives of poor people and communities in rural and urban communities in ten countries.
Read more >>

Help yourself: How do poor women and men understand their right to food?

June 5, 2014
Naomi Hossain of IDS introduces the latest report (launched today) from a joint IDS/Oxfam research programme on food prices. Do people at risk of hunger think they have a right to food? What does a right to food mean, and how can it be claimed and enforced? We asked these questions of around 1500 people in our Life in a Time
Read more >>

Creating a splash with Data Diving

August 30, 2013
Over a July weekend in London four charities and more than 80 data professionals took part in a “DataDive”, organized by DataKind UK. Ricardo, Richard and Simone from Oxfam’s Research Team (see pic of handsome hunks below) went along. Here’s what happened. If you came to London for a weekend during the best summer since 1976, how would you like
Read more >>

The End of Cheap Rice: Good News or Catastrophe?

August 21, 2013
Are high food prices here to stay, and if so are they a Good Thing (producers benefit) or a Bad Thing (consumers go hungry)? These are the questions explored by a thought-provoking and very even-handed new paper (only 5 pages) from the ODI on the ‘end of cheap rice’. From the Summary: “After more than 30 years of decline as
Read more >>

‘Squeezed’: how are poor people adjusting to life in a time of food price volatility?

May 23, 2013
Ace IDS researcher Naomi Hossain introduces the first results of a big Oxfam/IDS research project on food price volatility If the point of development is to make the Third World more like the First, then we aid-wallahs can pack our bags and go home. Job done. The most striking finding of Squeezed, the first year results from the four year
Read more >>

If we can’t prove that speculation drives food prices, should we regulate it anyway?

March 1, 2013
One of my more wonk-mind-blowing moments last year was refereeing a debate about financial speculation and commodity prices between Oxfam’s Rob Nash and a UK Treasury wonk who wished to remain nameless. I couldn’t understand either of them (even by international development standards, the language is really weird – try ‘contango’ or ‘backwardation’).  I tried to get them to slug
Read more >>

What’s New in Development? Introducing the Second Edition of ‘From Poverty to Power’

January 10, 2013
Here’s what the new edition of FP2P adds to the first (in case you want to save yourselves a few quid). This was recently published by the UN University as part of its ‘WIDER Angle’ series Updating a book on contemporary events can be unnerving. In the intervening years, events and new thinking combine to expose theweaknesses of any text.
Read more >>

Prices that bounce – Naomi Hossain on the human face of the food crisis

September 14, 2012
Read more >>

Extreme weather, extreme prices: what will more erratic weather do to food prices?

September 5, 2012
Read more >>

How poor people get through crises: some excellent 'rapid social anthropology' from IDS and the World Bank

April 19, 2012
Read more >>

Food and Finance: a little less speculation, a little more action please…

October 5, 2011
Read more >>