Global sustainable food governance and hunger: traps and tragedies

This article focuses on the global problem of hunger. It submits that many developing countries are caught in a hunger, poverty and population trap and with the increasing divergence in income between rich and poor countries, the chances that these countries will be able to come out of these positive self-reinforcing cycles with negative side-effects is quite low in the medium-term. It then examines some of the “tragedies” in global governance that directly or indirectly affect hunger. It concludes that although the theories underlying international policies may be sound, when negotiated and applied in different contexts, the results may not be in line with what the policymakers expected. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited