Effect of Safety Net Program on Household Food Insecurity in Pakistan

Abstract

Food insecurity concerns the limited or uncertain availability of food or individuals' access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods. Food insecurity is more concerned the access rather than availability. Regarding food availability, the growth of per capita food production is almost 1 per cent more than the growth of the population globally. Access to adequate and safe food always remain a heating socio-economic issue among local and global stakeholder because nearly 2.3 billion (1 in 3) people are severely or moderately food insecure. Pakistan is also effecting by food insecurity because almost 36% of the households are facing food insecurity. The social safety net programs are the most effective ways to alleviate food insecurity for at-risk families. This study attempts to analyse the effect of safety net program on food insecurity in Pakistan. The study's primary findings are that for a household, transition from food insecure to food secure required less resources than the transition from poor to non-poor. The findings of the regression analysis suggest that safety net recipient household is more likelihood of being food insecure than the non-recipient. Moreover, an increase in the amount of safety net lower the likelihood of being mild food insecurity. Finally, the study propounds some food security-oriented policy measures for effective policy implementation to ease the prevalence of food insecurity in Pakistan.