Elizabeth Stites and Dan Maxwell’s Report on Food Security in Rural Nepal

Published in April 2018 by the Feinstein International Center, this report investigates food security resilience in Far-Western Nepal. Poshan Dahal, Jeeyon Janet Kim, Daniel Maxwell, Matteo Smerlak, Elizabeth Stites, and Bapu Vaitla explore avenues to implement a low-cost food security resilience monitoring system; develop a theoretical framework and quantitative methodology for measuring resilience; and qualitatively explore the effect of transnational migration and remittances on well-being, gender equality, and livelihood choices.

The report argues that rapid assessment indicators of food security can form the basis of an inexpensive resilience monitoring system. We also find that nearly 80% of all household capital is in the form of human capital, which illustrates the importance of migration, despite the pressures such a choice imposes on family and social structure. This report demonstrates that within-community economic networks, especially as manifest in labor sharing, are critical and understudied aspects of the rural economy.

You can read the report here.