Food Insecurity Dynamics in Ethiopia: A System Dynamics Approach, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2023-06-10
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Publisher
AAU
Abstract
Food security is a dynamic concept that has continuously integrated new dimensions and levels of
analysis over the years; this reflects the wider recognition of its complexities in research and
public policy issues. Food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and
economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life. Food insecurity occurs at the individual, household, or
nation level for those who have neither physical nor economic access to the nourishment they
need. Food insecurity is an enduring and critical challenge in Ethiopia, which is Africa’s second most populous country after Nigeria. This study has assessed the trends and status of the complex
issue of food insecurity at a national level, listed out the major influencing factors that form the
causal relationship using the green economy framework, and identified policy-related issues
using system dynamics that have assisted in addressing and investigating this problem as it has
unfolded in the various causal relationships that will be used for further analysis in the definition
of future policy options and testing of these policy options. The policy test was conducted on three
aspects of the green economy: social, economic, and environmental. This study finds that food
insecurity and malnutrition are more sensitive to the issue of increasing human capital through
the social aspect, namely access to basic health care and the educational sector, which has a
reinforcing effect, and also suggests the environmental aspect of decreasing the food waste
emission rate to lower GHG emissions, which has a long-term effect on yield. Overall, this study
suggests that food policies go beyond casualties and require long-term policy development in
order to deal with Ethiopia's highest prevalence of Food insecurity