Dpto. Economía y Empresa

Actualmente, existen alrededor de 1000 millones de hambrientos en el mundo, una cifra que se ha incrementado considerablemente desde 873 millones que había en el periodo 2004-2006. Este aumento de los hambrientos está sujeto a una serie de causas que tienen que ver con la acción humana o la inacción ante este problema. Esta cifra parece que está lejos de reducirse, más teniendo en cuenta la crisis actual, justificando la acción inmediata para crear medidas que disminuyan el hambre. En este contexto, pretendemos explorar diversas causas que motivan el hambre, así como posibles soluciones que puedan mitigarla. Al ser un fenómeno tan multidimensional y sujeto a ideología, resulta difícil abordar tanto causas como soluciones. Conscientes de esta dificultad, destacamos diversas causas a nivel económico y político, y proponemos como solución principal impulsar al ser humano como una finalidad y no como un objeto de los mercados y procesos económicos. / There are around 1,020 millions of hungry people in the world. This figure has considerably increased from 2004-2006, when the hungry people were 873 millions. The increase is caused by a series of human actions or inactions towards this problem. In a global crisis framework, this figure seems to be far from decreasing, justifying the immediate action in order to reduce hunger. In this context, our objective is to explore several causes that motivate the formation of hunger, as well as possible solutions to reduce it. As it is a complex phenomenon and subject to ideologies, it is difficult to identify clear causes and solutions. Conscious of this limitation, we highlight several causes at an economic and political level, and we propose as a main solution to set the human being as a goal and not as a subject of markets and economic processes.

Con el fin de permitir que los países en desarrollo se puedan integrar al comercio mundial, es necesario conocer ciertos elementos de carácter tanto general a nivel de país o específico a nivel de hogar. En este trabajo se presenta el caso de Mozambique, presentando información de tipo general y un análisis sobre las oportunidades de los hogares para vincularse al comercio. El análisis se efectúa con los datos extraídos de una encuesta realizada a 1.400 hogares de las zonas rurales (se excluyen las pequeñas ciudades) de seis distritos ribereños del río Zambeze, una de las áreas más pobres de Mozambique, en la que tres cuartas partes de la población estudiada tienen como principal actividad la agricultura de autosubsistencia. Se identifican las características de los hogares de Mozambique que les permiten comercializar los bienes agrícolas a partir de modelos estadísticos y los datos obtenidos de variables relacionadas con la agricultura, al acceso al mercado y diferentes aspectos socieconómicos de la zona que ocupa nuestro estudio. La finalidad de este trabajo consiste en trasladar las conclusiones obtenidas para el diseño de las posibles estrategias de Gobierno, ONGs y Organismos Internacionales, para ayudar a crear planes de desarrollo que impulsen a los hogares de Mozambique a participar en el comercio local y global, y les permitan escapar de la trampa de la pobreza. In order to allow development countries to integrate in global commerce, it is necessary to know global elements and specific ones. In this study we present Mozambique case, introducing general information of the country and an analysis about household opportunities to participate in commerce. The analysis is made using data from a field work in the rural areas. Concretely, data gathers 1.400 households from six districts in river Zambeze. This area is one of the poorest of Mozambique, where two thirds of studied population is devoted to subsistence agriculture. The characteristics of households that allow them to commercialize their crops are identified through a study using statistical models using variables related to agriculture, market access and different socioeconomic aspects. The purpose of this paper is to translate the conclusion of the analysis to design possible strategies for Government, NGOs and International Organisations. Therefore, results will help to create development plans that permit households to participate in local and global commerce so that they can escape from poverty trap.

This research analyses the relationship between certain water‐related habits and infrastructure likely to influence the frequency of diarrhoea in children that are five years old or younger. The study is implemented using an ordered logit model with information from 334 households from the Zambezi river in Mozambique, with children who were aged up to five years. The main objective of this paper is to emphasize the importance of hygiene education in the prevention of gastrointestinal diseases in children aged five years old and under, that are affected by poor access to water systems and sanitation. Maintaining hygiene is especially important in households with young children, who are more vulnerable to gastrointestinal diseases. The results of the research reveal that in households that do not know that water transmits illnesses and where they do not wash their hands before preparing a child’s meal, the children suffer diarrhoea more frequently. The main recommendation is to invest in hygiene education programmes to reduce the risk of illnesses such as diarrhoea. Improvements in access to water and sanitation may not be sufficient in order to improve life conditions if there is no hygiene education.