Diversity of food access among lowincome households in South Africacomparative evidence from household
Peter Jacobs
HSRC- EPD
DST-HSRC Science Seminar
Policy Relevant Indicators to Monitor
Household Food Security Status in SA
12 November 2013
Economic Performance
and Development
Food & Nutrition Status of SA
Households- debunking old myths
• Reduce and restrict SA food insecurity problem to
aggregate (economy-wide) food production
• Other dimensions of food security (such a food access)
receive almost no attention despite ‘overwhelming
dependency on access to food through markets’
• Food insecurity is a ‘rural problem’- downplay or ignore
differential livelihood capabilities (small-farm households,
farm workers, urban/rural, informal settlements, etc…)
• SA Food & Nutrition Security debate far more nuanced major food system transition and shifts…
Where Households Purchase Foods,
Rural versus Urban, IES 2010/11 (%)
Fresh Fruits
Fresh Vegetables
Meat
Retail Outlet
Urban
Rural
Urban
Rural
Urban
Rural
Chain Stores
/Supermarkets
59.33
26.2
29.64
9.91
56.37
33.12
Other Retailers
16.26
52.28
43.2
43.03
36.72
47.46
9.3
12.67
9.79
14.09
0.75
1.35
15.11
8.85
17.38
32.97
6.16
18.06
Street Traders
Other
Month, YEAR
May-12
Jan-12
Sep-11
May-11
Jan-11
Sep-10
May-10
Jan-10
Sep-09
May-09
Jan-09
Sep-08
May-08
Jan-08
Sep-07
May-07
Jan-07
Sep-06
May-06
Jan-06
Sep-05
May-05
Jan-05
Sep-04
May-04
Jan-04
Sep-03
May-03
Jan-03
Sep-02
May-02
Jan-02
Sep-01
250
PPI-Agric
CPI-General
CPI-Food
150
80
100
60
40
50
20
0
0
CPI Value 100=2008
200
May-01
Jan-01
Sep-00
May-00
Jan-00
PPI Value, 100=2005
Three waves of food price inflationinsufficient access to food?
Inflation trends based on PPI and CPI, Jan 2000- June 2012
140
PPI-General
120
PPI-Agro-Food
100
Food price inflation, affordability &
household food & nutrition status
• Limited high-level picture based on PPI and CPI trends;
unpack drivers of food costs/affordability across agrofood value chains
• Wave 1: Jan 2001-Jan 2003
• Wave 2: Sep 2006-Jan2009
• Wave 3: Aug 2011-May 2012
• Investigate dominant features of food and nutrition
security crises; develop a typology:
• how vulnerable and at risk households respond (coping strategies?);
• how government, private sector, civil society and other stakeholders
counter the adverse impacts of crises- immediate and longer-term
responses / interventions?
Some puzzles emerging from
food price crises?
• Are households switching to more affordable food
options?
• Lower-cost but healthy (awareness question?)
• Cheap with poor nutrition (spending decision?)
• Objective economic and subjective decisions
intertwined- tricky to disentangle…
Substantial changes in household food security
questions/info in GHS, 2007 versus 2010/2012
Food security status
GHS 2007
Hunger scale (Adults/children)
Farm workers;
Small-farm households;
Household size
Total spending (quartiles);
Living standardsFood spending;
expenditure
Social grants
Agricultural production Land access;
Agricultural outputs
Provinces;
Spatial information
District councils
Household livelihoods
& demography
GHS 2010
Hunger scale (adults/children);
Food access;
Variety foods consumed;
Coping strategies
Farm workers;
Small-farm households;
Household size
Total spending (quartiles);
Social grants;
Farm activities;
Agricultural outputs
Provinces;
Rural categories (formal/exhomeland)
Food insecurity based on hunger scaleGHS 2007-2012
2007
Hunger
scale
Never
Seldom/som
etimes
Often/alway
s
N (HHs)
2010
%
N (HHs)
2012
%
N (HHs)
%
11,159,150
86.48
11,421,362
81.35
11,996,295 83.28
1 489 289
11.54
2 196 361
15.64
1,996,636 13.86
255 795
1.98
422 467
3.01
411,565
2.86
IES 2010/11 Data Issues
• IES sample: Master Sample PSUs + 174 urban PSUs
(2001 Census)
• Information about expenditure items: classification of
individual consumption according to purpose (COICOP);
reference period= 12 months
• Diary method renders a more complete understanding of
a household's acquisition patterns- greater accuracy
• Some evidence on where households buy virtually all
their food items
Average Annual Household Spending on
Food, IES 2010/11
Food Items
Bread & Cereals
Meat
Fish
Dairy
Eggs
Fats & Oils
Fresh Fruits
Dried Fruit & Nuts
Processed Fruits
Fresh Vegetables
Processed Vegetables
Sugars & Sweets
Processed, Salts & Food
Hampers
Beverages: Tea & Coffee
Soft Drinks & Fruit Juices
URBAN
RURAL
TOTAL
841.38
1042.3
1411.6
1302.7
718.13
383.38
583.81
695.22
1151.2
630.19
323.35
660.87
233.55
114.16
52
78
472.86.
173.22
379.36
559.15
526.72
244.38
366.11
906.76
1360.7
606.7
637.32
898.03
518.71
204.97
69.08
472.86
320.58
546.28
288.14
11364
759.89
512.58
9649.9
661.32
430.9
7649.3
91
357.19
IES 2005/06- Diverse access to food
(Aliber 2009)
• ‘IES does pick up significant differences in the diversity
of their diets, and by implication of the quality of those
diets’
• ‘small-scale agriculture would appear to account for most
or all of the gap observed in food expenditure per capita
between rural and urban households’
• “…household-level food security comprises distinct
dimensions, such as frequency of having ‘enough food’,
and the nutritional quality of the diet” (Aliber 2009: 405)
National Income Dynamics Survey- W2
• Food Expenditure at the household level
• Household consumed food in last 30 days- binary
response
• Value of HH consumption- no units of consumption
• Nutritional markers: BMI scores, child health
indicators
• Therefore linkage between household food access
status and individual nutritional status
Average Household Expenditure on
cereals 30 days pre-survey, NIDS Wave 2
RuralRuralUrbanUrbanFood Item
formal
Tribal
Informal
Formal
Maize
122.62
105.32
58.03
57.17
Samp & Beans
33.14
41.66
29.15
35.23
Bread
91.87
81.25
72.48
104.09
Spending Share
0.4
0.45
0.42
0.3
Total Food
Expenditure
949.75
776.39
731.1
1477.9
Total HH Exp
3568.2
2330.7
2076.2
8633.7
Access to Diverse Food- rapid household
framework & indicator [HFAD]?
FOOD GROUP
DIVERSITY
NARROW
HIGH
FOOD
SPENDING
LOW
SHARE
WIDE
1
3
2
4
Missing link 1- who must be prioritised
in food and nutrition policy?
• Prioritise the needs to those without adequate food
and nutrition
• Translate constitutional provision into appropriate policy and
efficacious programmes
• Inseparable from global & local right to food
debates/campaigns- example UN/FAO, India’s new Food
Security Law, etc.
• Falling into food & nutrition insecurity easier than
transitioning out of it- extreme vulnerability problem?
• Food price crises: 3 waves of rapid food price inflation
• Global economic downturn (working poverty pathway…)
• Begin to explore intra-household and individual food &
nutrition security
Missing link 2: Improve our food and
nutrition measurement tools and methods
• Invest in high-frequency and low-cost tools to map the
food and nutrition status of households/individualsSANHANES-1 +++
• Better measurement of household food security status
• Indicators for multiple facets of food & nutrition security (include
access, consumption)
• Richer nationally representative datasets- with reliable least
district level information
• Scope for improvements and high-frequency M&E tools
• Further research required how food access relates to
dietary diversity and ‘coping strategies
• Caveat- mixed livelihood strategies impossible to investigate
because surveys exclude primary and secondary sources