Corruption and SDG 2

This chapter reviews the literature that speaks about the effects that corruption has on hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. We begin by setting out some of the ways in which corruption can impede progress toward SDG 2, such as effects on growth, conflict, production, and distribution. We then illustrate the relationship between corruption and hunger and food insecurity using data from the Varieties of Democracy database and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While the existing literature has found links between corruption and hunger and food insecurity, we argue that more work is needed to develop a theoretical framework in which these results can be interpreted and policy developed. We then discuss in more detail how corruption undermines agricultural production by restricting access to credit and other important inputs. Using data from the FAO, we show that more corrupt countries have made less progress toward sustainable agriculture and discuss why this could be the case. We also show that the governments of more corrupt countries are relatively less committed to agricultural expenditure. Both simple correlations are, we argue, worthy of further study given the importance of both for achieving SDG 2. Finally, we discuss the distortionary effects that corruption can have on agricultural markets. We conclude by offering some suggestions for future research.