The entitlement approach – a case for framework development rather than demolition

Abstract

The article dismisses most of the objections previously forwarded in this journal by Khandakar Qudrat-I Elahi against Amartya Sen's framework for famine analysis: the entitlement approach. Instead, the article argues that even thirty years after the conception of the entitlement approach, it remains a potent framework for famine analysis, as illustrated by the recent 2005 famine. However, as contemporary famines are increasingly linked to factors that have hitherto received limited attention in entitlement analysis – conflicts, legal collapses and political struggles – the article calls for supplementary famine analysis on the meso and macro levels.