Digitalising food assistance: Political economy, governance, and food security effects across the Global North-South divide

全球粮食不安全正在加剧，越来越多的人经历人道主义危机或生计岌岌可危。这些趋势随着2008年全球粮食危机和全球大流行而加速，并可能在当前的全球粮食危机和乌克兰战争加剧的情况下再次出现。在同一时期，政府、企业和援助组织推广了一系列数字实践，以解决粮食不安全问题，包括移动电话、智能卡和银行，用于转账，用于身份识别的生物识别，用于预测和分类需求的人工智能，以及用于市场和农业支持的数字平台。然而，由于有限的连通性、数字技能和对国家身份证的需求，存在被排斥的风险，这可能会不成比例地影响政治上被边缘化的人口，特别是流离失所或移徙人口。数字做法可能加剧不平等，因为它们提供了通过监督进行政治控制的机会，并通过私营部门的广泛参与获得利润。这项建议的总体目标是了解粮食援助做法数字化如何影响粮食安全脆弱性、其作为权力来源和治理方式的作用，并审查对解决地方和全球饥饿问题的影响。它将通过收集关于苏丹、印度和英国实施的数字实践影响的经验证据来实现这一点。选择这三个案例研究国家是为了反映全球北方和南方截然不同的政治经济、治理和粮食安全背景。苏丹是一个长期处于人道主义危机中的国家，印度是一个更稳定的国家，但贫困程度很高，而英国的人均收入水平更高，但饥饿水平不断上升。在全球范围内，它们通过殖民历史、贸易、金融、援助和移民联系在一起。在这种不同的背景下考察数字做法的影响，能够分析不同的做法如何影响地方和全球一级的权力关系、不平等和粮食不安全脆弱性。在每个国家，研究将包括观察、关键线人访谈、焦点小组，以及与国际和当地组织、社会运动、村庄和营地代表、移民团体、工会、政府和企业的直接接触。该项目与每个案例研究国家的研究人员合作，将通过共同领导促进平等的研究伙伴关系，并有助于削弱殖民者和殖民者之间历史上占主导地位的关系。这项研究将由SOAS、伦敦大学(英国)、新德里(印度)的人类发展研究所(IHD)和苏丹的喀土穆大学(由CEDEJ-喀土穆提供协助)领导，以下合作伙伴参与粮食援助：苏丹达尔富尔发展和重建局(DDRA)、印度的Jan Swparya Sahyog(JSS)和英国的粮食基金会。这提供了学术和政策网络的独特组合。凭借发展和人道主义研究、粮食研究、政治学和人类学方面的专业知识，这项研究将有助于研究数字化对社会和政府的影响、援助和社会福利的政治经济学以及粮食不安全的结构性原因。研究结果还将对政策产生直接影响，从将弱势群体排除在外的风险，到私营部门的利益和安全担忧，到对主权的影响，以及追究政府和援助行为者的责任。将在整个项目期间编写一些工作文件、政策报告、博客、播客和一系列照片，并通过专门的SOAS网站和社交媒体账户以及定期研讨会(如SOAS粮食论坛)和讲习班进行传播。

Food insecurity is rising globally and increasing numbers of people experience humanitarian crisis or precarious livelihoods. These trends have accelerated with the 2008 global food crisis and the global pandemic, and are likely to do so again in the current global food crisis compounded by the war in Ukraine. Over the same period, governments, businesses, and aid organisations have promoted a range of digital practices to address food insecurity, including mobile phones, smart cards and banking, to transfer money, biometrics for identification, artificial intelligence to predict and categorise need, and digital platforms for market and agricultural support. There are, however, risks of exclusion, due to limited connectivity, digital skills, and need for national ID cards, which is likely to disproportionately affect politically marginalised populations, in particular displaced or migrant populations. Digital practices potentially feed into inequalities because they provide opportunities for political control through surveillance and for profit through extensive private sector involvement. The overall aim of this proposal is to understand how digitalising food assistance practices has influenced vulnerability to food security, its role as a source of power and way of governing, and to examine implications for addressing hunger, locally and globally. It will achieve this by gathering empirical evidence on the effects of digital practices as operationalised in Sudan, India, and the UK. These three case study countries were chosen to reflect the widely contrasting political economy, governance, and food security contexts in the Global North and South. Sudan is a country in protracted humanitarian crisis, India is a more stable country but has high levels of deprivation, and the UK has higher average income levels but growing levels of hunger. Globally, they are linked through colonial history, trade, finance, aid, and migration. Examining the effects of digital practices in such diverse contexts enables an analysis of how different practices influence power relations, inequality, and vulnerability to food insecurity at the local and global level. Within each country, research will consist of observation, key informant interviews, focus groups, and direct engagement with international and local organisations, social movements, village and camp representatives, migrant groups, unions, government, and business. Working with researchers from each case study country, the project will promote equal research partnerships through co-leadership and contribute to eroding the historically dominant relations of coloniser and colonised. The research will be led by SOAS, University of London (UK), the Institute for Human Development (IHD) in New Delhi (India), and the University of Khartoum (Sudan) (facilitated by CEDEJ-Khartoum), with the following collaborating partners engaged in food assistance: the Darfur Development and Reconstruction Agency (DDRA) in Sudan, Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS) in India, and the Food Foundation in the UK. This provides a unique combination of academic and policy networks. With expertise in development and humanitarian studies, food studies, politics, and anthropology, the research will contribute to theory on the societal and governmental effects of digitalisation, on the political economy of aid and social welfare, and on the structural causes of food insecurity. The research findings will also have direct implications for policy, ranging from the risks of excluding vulnerable populations, to private sector benefits and security concerns, to implications for sovereignty, and for holding governments and aid actors to account. A number of working papers, policy reports, blogs, podcasts, and a photo series, will be produced throughout the project and disseminated via a dedicated SOAS website and social media account, and regular seminars (e.g., the SOAS Food Forum) and workshops.