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    Viewpoint: The case for a six-dimensional food security framework
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2022-01-12) Clapp J; Moseley WG; Burlingame B; Termine P
    The definition of food security has evolved and changed over the past 50 years, including the introduction of the four commonly cited pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability, which have been important in shaping policy. In this article, we make the case that it is time for a formal update to our definition of food security to include two additional dimensions proposed by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition: agency and sustainability. We show that the impact of widening food system inequalities and growing awareness of the intricate connections between ecological systems and food systems highlight the importance of these additional dimensions to the concept. We further outline the ways in which international policy guidance on the right to food already implies both agency and sustainability alongside the more established four pillars, making it a logical next step to adopt a six dimensional framework for food security in both policy and scholarly settings. We also show that advances have already been made with respect to providing measurements of agency and sustainability as they relate to food insecurity.
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    Measuring, defining, and valuing change: A database on development indicators for policy-makers, activists, and researchers
    (Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, 2013) Prinsen, Gerard; Purcell, Gisela
    The use of indicators in international development has increased exponentially since the 1990s. Composite and proxy indicators are used to measure a wide range of concepts but their shortcomings have been widely critiqued. Through a review of over 300 documents, this paper gives a brief history of the rise of “indicatorology” and then summarizes the key challenges in three categories: technical/operational, political/strategic and epistemological/conceptual. Technical challenges faced by development practitioners revolve around the over-simplification of complex issues and the conflation of the goals with indicators. Political challenges involve the inherent power of indicators and the implications they have for policy making. Epistemological challenges question how to balance scientific rigor with local knowledge in the creation and use of indicators. A database of all publications used in this research is being made accessible to development practitioners and researchers via Massey University – watch this space!