Food and Nutrition Surveillance
and Response in Emergencies
Session 9
Food Security Assessment
1
Introduction to the Concept of Food
Security
Definition:
• Everyone has at all times, access to and
control over sufficient quantities of good
quality food for an active, healthy life
•
All people at all times have both physical and
economic access to sufficient food to meet
their dietary needs for a productive and
healthy life (Food Aid and Food Security:
USAID Policy Paper. February 1995)
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Everyone has
Equity; all people
At all times
Stability of food availability, access and utilization;
Protection against risks affecting people’s food
security
Access to
The right to food. People are entitled to enough food.
Affordability – depending on purchasing power and
food prices; Own prodn depending on land rights etc.
And control over
Power to take decisions on food prodn, distn + consn
Sufficient quantities
Enough food to meet daily requirements, sufficient
stock at hh and community levels to resist shocks
Of good quality food
Variety of nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate
foods
For an active and
healthy life
Proper consumption and good biological utilization of
food, resulting in adequate nutritional status of people
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Concept of Food Security Continued
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Is broad and complex concept determined by
interaction of a range of agro-physical,
Socio-economic and biological factors – no
single direct measure of food security
Simplified by focusing on three distinct interrelated dimensions of the concept:
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Food availability
Food access
Food utilization
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Concept of Food Security Continued
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Food availability – achieved when sufficient
quantities of food are available to all
individuals
Food access – ensured when households and
all individuals within them have adequate
resources to obtain appropriate foods for
nutritious diet
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•
Depends on income, food distribution and price
Food utilization – proper biological use of
food
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Food Security Conceptual Framework
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Important issues which lead to food insecurity of
households and individuals in the developing world
include (among others):
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Chronic poverty
Rapid population growth
Declining per capita food output
Poor infrastructure
Ecological constraints
Limited arable land
Inappropriate policies
Disease
Poor water and sanitation
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Inadequate nutritional knowledge
Civil wars and Ethnic conflicts
Natural Disasters
Each factor impacts on household and individual
food security in different ways
Relative importance of the pathways of these
factors as determinants of food insecurity vary
across households, locations and over time
Clarity of these pathways is critical for:
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design of interventions
identification and interpretation of food security
indicators
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A well defined conceptual framework :
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Provides broader context critical for successfully
interpreting food security indicators
Supports the design of data collection systems
and analytical plans
The USAID Food Security Conceptual
Framework
FAO, ES Department Framework on Food
Security, Livelihoods and Nutrition
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Assessment of food insecurity (at hh level)
needs to measure not only the lack of access,
availability and utilization or use of food, but
also perceptions on what constitutes:
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Insufficiency
Unacceptable
Uncertainty or unsustainable
determine the use
of available/
accessible food
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Methods of assessing food security:
Famine Early warning systems and food
security assessment
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Early warning activities range – global focus
on national and international food
availability to localised focus on issues of
access to food and food security.
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Global information and Early Warning System
(GIEWS) of the FAO
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Monitors food supply and demand around the world
Aim – to warn the international aid community and
participating national governments of food shortages
for food aid palnning
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– Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) of
the USIAD
• Publishes both regular regional bulletins and
‘special alerts’.
• Notices are based on vulnerability assessments
that evaluate components of national and
household food security in order to identify:
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which people are food insecure
the nature of their problem
Factors influencing their food security, and
Possible interventions
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Periodic emergency food assessment e.g.:
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The regular joint FAO/WFP food and crop
assessments undertaken to estimate national food
aid needs – based on a food balance sheet –
impart part of GIEWS
Periodic WFP/UNHCR joint food assessment
missions (JFAMS) – make recommendations on:
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number of beneficiaries
modalities of assistance
composition of the food basket
ration size
duration of assistance, and
logistical arrangements
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Regular food security monitoring systems
and/or emergency food security assessments
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Are more localised
Indicators depend on the location but generally
include:
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market prices
variety of coping strategies
Migration, and
sometimes anthropometric status
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Ad hoc food security assessments of
emergencies - Common among NGOs
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The food economy approach of SCF- UK
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Developed in 1994
Assesses food aid needs and allows for effective
targeting of food aid in protracted emergencies
Approach has two main objectives:
– Understand how people survive and how patterns of survival
have changed as a result of ‘shocks’
– Estimate the size of the food gap and thereby estimating food
aid needs
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Highlighted the need for baseline data to interprete
current events or food security indicators
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Somalia Food Security Assessment Unit (FSAU) is
an example of combining various types of food
security information systems.
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Uses food economy approach to establish a baseline and
monitors food security indicators and nutritional status
over time to assess changes in food security
Relies on ad hoc missions, assessments, and sometimes
surveys where food security indicators cannot be
monitored continously
Collaborates with USIAD FEWS to produce a joint
newsletter, Rainwatch.
FEWS provides satellite data on rainfall estimates, cloud
top temperatures, and the normalised difference
vegetative index while FSAU field monitors and other
NGOs provide information collected locally on the
ground
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Many NGOs are involved in assessing hh food
security : SCF, ACF, Action Against Hunger
(AAH), CARE, Oxfarm, and Concern Worldwide.
These agencies have similar concepts and
definitions of food security – but have developed a
range of approaches to assessing food security –
reasons:
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Food security assessment may have different objectives
e.g.:
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Estimation of food aid needs
Analysis of coping mechanisms
Design of potential interventions
In all cases information is intended to help decision
makers form knowledgeable and timely decisions.
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Indicators of Measuring Food Insecurity
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Measures of food insecurity need to asses:
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Availability
Access
Utilization or use of food
Measures must also assess:
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Other important factors that determine use of
available/accessible food e.g. perceptions on
what constitutes insufficiency, inadequacy,
unacceptable, uncertainty or unsustainable
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Hence multiple indicators are used to reflect
the various dimensions of the problem
Most commonly used are:
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Food production
Income
Total expenditure
Food expenditure
Share of expenditure on food
Calorie consumption, and
nutritional status
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Not all programmes can be evaluated using all or
even some of the indicators.
Food security indicators are summary measures of
one or more of the dimensions of food security used
to assess food security status, demonstrate change
or the result of a programme activity for a target
population
Food security indicators are constructed from a set
of observation, or measurements of food securityrelated conditions which are classified according to
a set of criteria, aggregated, and placed in some
proper perspective
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Selecting/Choosing Among Indicators
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When selecting indicators of food security one must
define what they determine and level at which they
operate i.e. community, household or individual.
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The problem in choosing specific measures is how
to maximise the quality of the information and its
benefit to decision-making against the costs of
collecting, processing, and analysing that
information
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Good measures should be relevant, credible, lowcost, comparable, time sensitive and appropriate for
the decisions that need to be made
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Criteria for deciding when and what to
monitor and evaluate often includes:
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Ease of collecting, interpreting & using the
information
Time required
Source of information
Variability in x-tic/element being measured
Cost
Use of the information
Level at which information will be used
Relative importance of the information
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Indicator Proxies
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Some food security indicators are difficult or
expensive to measure directly
Hence proxy-indicators have been developed e.g.
for incomes:
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Gender of hh head
Availability of working age individuals within hh
Ethnicity, social class, or caste
Size of family dwelling
Type of materials used to construct dwelling
Method of water collection & sanitation availability
Ownership of key assets
Geographic location of hh
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Types of Indicators
Household food security indicators can be grouped into
two:
1. Process indicators
2. Outcome indicators
Process Indicators
• Reflect food supply and food access
• Indicators reflecting food supply are those that play
a role in limiting food availability and the options
households have for food access
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These indicators provide information on the
likelihood of a shock or disaster event that
will adversely affect household food security
Examples:
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Inputs and measures of agricultural production
(agro-meteorological data)
Access to natural resources
Institutional development
Market infrastructure
Exposure to conflicts or its consequences (influx
of refugees)
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Specific indicators:
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Access to food aid programmes
Rainfall (total, distribution and timing)
Natural resources (wild foods, fuel etc)
Access to all weather roads
Access credit facilities
Access to pasture resources
Food supply indicators can be derived from records
and data sheets e.g. r/fall records, food balance
sheets etc.
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Useful for monitoring and determining food security at
regional level
Limitation – they are too aggregated to detect pockets of
vulnerability
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•
Indicators reflecting food access – provide
information on the capacity of the
population affected by shock or disaster to
withstand its effects i.e. coping ability
indicators.
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Information can be derived e.g. by SE indicators
that represent the degree of stress and ways in
which the households are responding to the stress
Coping ability food access indicators measure
the extent of food insecurity by making use of
frequency and severity of food-consumption
related strategies
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Outcome indicators
• Are proxies for adequate food consumption
• Revolve around measures of food
consumption
• Are of two types:
1. Direct – attempt to measure actual food
consumption.
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Include: food diversity/variety scores, food frequency
consumption data and consumption expenditures
2. Indirect – generally only used when direct
indicators are inappropriate in terms of time and
cost
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Include – nutritional status of index children
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Outcome indicators continued
• Limitation – proxies that are appropriate for
one area may not necessarily be appropriate
for other areas.
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