Dr. Logan Cochrane, assistant professor at the College of Public Policy (CPP), has a new book being published in fall 2021: Ethiopia and Food Security: What We Know, How We Know It, and Future Options. The publication follows many years of extensive research during Dr. Cochrane’s tenure living and working in Ethiopia. 

Although Ethiopia has made significant progress preventing famine, food insecurity remains a significant challenge, with one in five Ethiopians relying on emergency assistance as recently as 2016. Ethiopia and Food Security analyzes what makes people vulnerable to food insecurity, by analyzing individual households as well as the broader systems, policies, and services that people interact with. 

Dr. Logan’s exploration employs a new methodology – stages of food security – to expand the types of questions being asked. Offering a depth of qualitative insight and facilitating the emergence of highly contextualized information, the results highlight the role of issues not often associated with food security research, such as migration and debt. In analyzing how the evidence about food security is shaped, the book highlights avenues for re-envisioning research methods, particularly as policy and practice encounter politics. 

The book has garnered exemplary reviews to date, as a “copiously documented book [that] examines the prevalent question of food insecurity in Ethiopia from a rights-based perspective and concludes with a careful consideration of the available options,” notes Bahru Zewde, Emeritus Professor of History, Addis Ababa University.

“Dr. Cochrane provides a unique perspective on the complex drivers of food insecurity and options for alleviating them,” says Teferi Abate Adem, research anthropologist at the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), Yale University. 

Dr. Cochrane has authored over 100 publications. In 2021, he co-edited The Transnational Land Rush and in 2019, he edited Ethiopia: Social and Political Issues. Ethiopia and Food Security: What We Know, How We Know It, and Future Options will be out on September 15.