Beyond the Arab awakening: Policies and investments for poverty reduction and food security

Clemens Breisinger (), Olivier Ecker, Al-Riffai Perrihan and Bingxin Yu

No 25, Food policy reports from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Abstract: This report aims to inform and stimulate the debate on key policy priorities for poverty reduction and food security in light of the Arab Awakening. Its findings are based on an innovative combination of datasets and rigorous economic analysis. Results suggest that poverty and income inequality in the Arab world are likely higher than official numbers have long suggested. Given that poverty indicators seem to be misleading for many countries in the region, the report introduces a new welfare measure reflecting food insecurity risks at both national and household levels to classify Arab countries into five risk groups. Regression analyses further show that, unlike in the rest of the world, manufacturing- and service sector–led growth, rather than agriculture-led growth, is most pro-poor in Arab countries. In addition, high levels of public spending in the Arab world do not do as much to stimulate growth as in other world regions, particularly in the case of education.

Keywords: food security; Millennium Development Goals (MDG); Nutrition; child malnutrition; Poverty; Poverty Egypt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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