Chapter 04: Institutional Failures and Reform Pathways: Addressing the Governance Deficit in Food Security Policy: Institutional failures and reform pathways

Pakistan faces a paradox typical of most developing economies of a nation that has significant agriculture resources and a population traditionally dependent on agriculture, and yet, food insecurity has become entrenched in the system and is being reproduced by institutions. In 2024, Pakistan is ranked at 109th position out of 127 countries on the Global Hunger Index, where 36.9 per cent of the population is facing moderate or severe food insecurity and 82 per cent are unable to afford a healthy diet. This chapter contends that this crisis is not just limited to lack of resources or deficit in food production but is due to the cumulative failure of food security governance, overlapping constitutional mandates after 18th constitutional amendment, deep-rooted corruption in procurement institutions like Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO), chronic under investment in agricultural research and development, and the persistent failure to translate policy design into implementation. The chapter constructs a typology of institutional failure in four dimensions (design, coordination, accountability and adaptation) based on comparative evidence from Bangladesh, India, Brazil and Ethiopia and then outlines a multi-horizon reform pathway that is structured around Pakistan's political economy. The analysis proposes that durable food security in developing countries is an institutional accomplishment, and that, without ongoing governance reform, technical and financial interventions have limited lasting impact with each successive intervention having a smaller effect.