MIFIRA Framework
Lecture 1
Context of food insecurity
Chris Barrett and Erin Lentz
February 2012
Overview
Setting the context for MIFIRA: Food insecurity
• Food Security: What is it?
• Measures of food insecurity
• Causes of food insecurity
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Food Insecurity: What Is It?
Knowing the population one is analyzing, next
assess context: why are people food insecure?
1996 WFS definition of food security:
“a situation that exists when all people, at all
times, have physical, social and economic access
to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets
their dietary needs and food preferences for an
active and healthy life.”
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Food Insecurity: What Is It?
Typically thought of as having 3 pillars:
1) Availability
2) Access
3) Utilization
( sometimes 4) Stability )
These are inherently hierarchical. Each is
necessary but not sufficient for the one beneath it.
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Food Availability
Supply side … FAO food balance sheets
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Food Access
At least since Sen (1981), access is recognized as the
dominant explanation for food insecurity.
“Starvation is the characteristic of some people not
having enough food to eat. It is not the
characteristic of there being not enough food to
eat. While the latter can be a cause of the former,
it is but one of many possible causes.”
Access reflects demand side: endowments (land,
income) and exchange possibilities (prices/wages,
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transfer options, safety nets based on rights)
Food Access
Incomes and prices are 1st order important to access.
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Utilization
Do individuals and households make good use of
the food to which they have access?
Do they consume nutritionally essential foods they
can afford or do they choose a nutritionally
inferior diet?
Are the foods safe and properly prepared, under
sanitary conditions, so as to deliver their full
nutritional value?
Is their health such that they absorb and
metabolize essential nutrients?
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Stability
4th pillar?
Captures the susceptibility of individuals to food
security due to interruptions in access, availability
or utilization.
Matters for targeting of interventions and the
design of safety nets intended to safeguard food
security for vulnerable subpopulations.
Introduces concepts of risk and time.
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Stability
Food price instability of particular concern.
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Chronic and Transitory Food Insecurity
Chronic food insecurity reflects a long-term lack
of access to adequate food, and is typically
associated with structural problems of
availability, access or utilization. This is by far
the most widespread sort of food insecurity.
Transitory food insecurity is associated with
sudden and temporary disruptions in availability,
access or, less commonly, utilization.
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Seasonal Food Insecurity
2 common sorts of transitory food insecurity:
Seasonal – recurs annually during the hungry
season before the next main harvest comes in.
Prices rise. Commonly affects the rural poor.
Source: Stephens and Barrett, 2011
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Famines
Old view: Malthus and supply-side explanations for
mass mortality food crises: Food supply declines below
point where adequate nutrients available to meet
everyone’s needs.
Sen view: “entitlements” collapse, due to income
collapse (unemployment), price spikes, etc. not just
supply side shocks.
21st century view: multifactoral causality, but mainly a
failure of political will: information adequate to prevent.
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Measures
Lots of different measures exist. Reflect different
concepts and data sources. Examine critically.
Measurement matters for three reasons:
1) By capturing different phenomena, subtly affect
policy and project prioritization.
2) Data typically retrospective, but policy is aimed
at affecting future. How predictive are measures?
3) Measures must be associated with targetable
characteristics if interventions are to be properly
directed to those most in need of assistance. 14
Causes of Food Insecurity
In addition to the chronic/transitory distinction, it
is helpful to separate covariate and idiosyncratic.
Covariate: common to a broad subpopulation (e.g.,
due to crop yields, food prices, wages, civil unrest).
Underpins generalized interventions (e.g., food aid,
price controls, famine early warning systems).
Idiosyncratic: individual-level experience (e.g.,
gender, religion, occupation, age, land holdings).
Essential to successful targeting of interventions.
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Causes of Food Insecurity
Domestic production dwarfs commercial crossborder trade and food aid, so local productivity is
key to chronic covariate food insecurity.
Global Annual Cereal Flows
60
400
Production (read against right axis)
350
300
40
250
Commerical imports (read against left axis)
30
200
150
20
100
Ceral Production in kilograms per person
Cereal Trade and Aid in kilograms per person
50
10
50
Food aid (read against left axis)
0
1970
0
1975
Source: FAO, FAOStat database
1980
1985
1990
Years
1995
2000
2005
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Causes of Food Insecurity
Because incomes are so strongly correlated with
access, income is the best indicator of chronic
idiosyncratic food insecurity.
60
25
50
20
40
15
30
10
20
5
10
0
0
0
5,000
10,000
% children <5 years stunted (ca. 2006)
Child Stunting and Wasting, by National Income
30
15,000
Source: Barrett and Lentz (2010), Food Insecurity in Denemark ed. The
International Studies Compendium Project. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
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Causes of Food Insecurity
Transitory idiosyncratic food insecurity is
commonly associated with livelihood disruptions:
e.g., job loss, crop failure, livestock loss, etc.
Formal and informal safety nets are crucial.
Transitory covariate food insecurity is primarily
associated with sharp adjustments in prices or, more
broadly terms of trade (e.g., wage/price, livestock
price/crop price)
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Causes of Food Insecurity
Market Access
A big cause of both chronic and transitory
idiosyncratic food insecurity. Can be due to:
- excessive transactions costs (travel, information,
storage, etc.) related to geography, physical health
- social exclusion (gender, age, religion, race, etc.)
- macro policies (FX rationing, trade barriers)
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