The food price crisis and urban food insecurity

This paper argues that the disproportionate attention that policy solutions to the food price crisis give to rural dwellers is probably misplaced. Although in developing countries rural poverty is often deeper and more widespread than urban poverty, rural dwellers are often net producers of food, frequently of the very staples whose prices are rising. It outline the pathways of impact of food price rises on urban dwellers; highlight the evidence so far on how those impacts have played out during this crisis; and describe current policy responses, suggesting how to improve them to better protect the urban poor in the short and longer term.