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

全球粮食不安全状况正在加剧，越来越多的人面临人道主义危机或生计不稳定。随着2008年全球粮食危机和全球大流行病的爆发，这些趋势加速了，在当前乌克兰战争加剧的全球粮食危机中，这些趋势很可能再次加速。在同一时期，政府、企业和援助组织推动了一系列数字实践，以解决粮食不安全问题，包括移动电话、智能卡和银行转账、用于身份识别的生物识别技术、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，由于连通性、数字技能和对国民身份证的需求有限，存在被排斥的风险，这可能会不成比例地影响政治边缘化人群，特别是流离失所者或移民人口。数字实践可能加剧不平等，因为它们提供了通过监视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。本提案的总体目标是了解数字化粮食援助实践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，并研究对地方和全球解决饥饿问题的影响。它将通过收集在苏丹、印度和英国实施的数字实践影响的经验证据来实现这一目标。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。苏丹是一个陷入长期人道主义危机的国家，印度是一个更稳定的国家，但贫困程度很高，英国的平均收入水平较高，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。在如此多样化的背景下研究数字实践的影响，可以分析不同实践如何影响地方和全球层面的权力关系、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。该项目将与来自每个案例研究国家的研究人员合作，通过共同领导促进平等的研究伙伴关系，并有助于侵蚀殖民者和被殖民者之间历史上占主导地位的关系。该研究将由SOAS、伦敦大学（英国）、新德里人类发展研究所（IHD）和喀土穆大学（由CEDEJ-Khartoum推动）领导，并与以下参与粮食援助的合作伙伴合作：苏丹达尔富尔发展与重建署（DDRA）、印度Jan Swasthya Sahyog （JSS）和英国粮食基金会。这提供了学术和政策网络的独特结合。凭借在发展和人道主义研究、食品研究、政治和人类学方面的专业知识，该研究将为数字化的社会和政府影响、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等方面的理论做出贡献。研究结果还将对政策产生直接影响，从排斥弱势群体的风险，到私营部门的利益和安全问题，再到对主权的影响，以及对政府和援助行为者的问责。在整个项目中，将制作一些工作文件、政策报告、博客、播客和一系列照片，并通过专门的SOAS网站和社交媒体帐户以及定期研讨会（例如，SOAS食品论坛）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.