How do indicators of household food insecurity measure up? An empirical comparison from Ethiopia

Renewed emphasis on programs and policies aimed at enhancing food security has intensified the search for accurate, rapid, and consistent indicators. Measures of food security are urgently required for purposes of early warning, assessment of current and prospective status of at-risk populations, and monitoring and evaluation of specific programs and policies. Different measures are often used interchangeably, without a good idea of which dimensions of food security are captured by which measures, resulting in potentially significant misclassification of food insecure populations. The objective of this paper is to compare how the most frequently used indicators of food security portray static and dynamic food security among the same sample of rural households in two districts of Tigray State, Northern Ethiopia. Seven food security indicators were assessed: the Coping Strategies Index (CSI); the Reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI); the Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS); the Household Hunger Scale (HHS); Food Consumption Score (FCS); the Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS); and a self-assessed measure of food security (SAFS). These indicators provide very different estimates of the prevalence of food insecurity, but are moderately well correlated and depict generally similar food security trends over time. We suggest that the differences in prevalence estimates, and in some cases the weaker than expected correlation, can be explained in three ways. First, the indicators differ in the underlying aspect of food security they attempt to capture. Second, each indicator is likely only sensitive within a certain severity range of food insecurity and these ranges do not always overlap. Third, categorization of the prevalence of food insecurity is strongly dependent on the choice of cut-off points. For valid reasons, “food insecurity” has no accepted gold standard metric against which individual indicators can be gauged, though without one it is difficult to say which indicator performs “best” in correctly and reliably identifying food insecure households. The implication is that using more than one indicator is advisable, and policy makers should be aware of what elements of food insecurity each indicator portrays.     

Conflict,food price shocks,and food insecurity: The experience of Afghan households

Using nationally-representative household survey data and confidential geo-coded data on violent incidents, we examine the relationship between conflict and food insecurity in Afghanistan. Spatial mappings of the raw data reveal large variations in levels of food insecurity and conflict across the country; surprisingly, high conflict provinces are not the most food insecure. Using a simple bivariate regression model of conflict (violent incidents and persons killed or injured) on food security (calorie intake and the real value of food consumed), we find mixed associations. But once we move to a multivariate framework, accounting for household characteristics and key commodity prices, we find robust evidence that in Afghanistan levels of conflict and food security are negatively correlated. We also find that households in provinces with higher levels of conflict experience muted declines in food security due to staple food price increases relative tohouseholds in provinces with lower levels of conflict, perhaps because the former are more disconnected from markets. Gaining a better understanding of linkages between conflict and food insecurity and knowing their spatial distributions can serve to inform policymakers interested in targeting scarce resources to vulnerable populations, for example, through the placement of strategic grain reserves or targeted food assistance programs.     

The impact of a food security program on household food consumption in Northwestern Ethiopia: A matching estimator approach

With the financial support from various development partners, Ethiopia has designed and implemented several programs to improve household food security. Yet, food insecurity is still a major challenge to several millions of people in the country and it is questionable whether the different food security programs implemented over the past years have been successful. Using a propensity score matching method to control for pre-intervention differences, this study examined the impact on household food calorie intake of an integrated food security program (IFSP), which had been implemented in Northwestern Ethiopia by two non-governmental organizations as a case study. The estimated results provide evidence that IFSP has a positive and statistically significant effect on food calorie intake. In particular, IFSP has raised physical food calorie intake by 30% among the beneficiary households. However, we also found that IFSP has differential impact depending on family size, landownership and gender of head of household. Overall, the paper provides evidence that supporting integrated food security programs is important to improve food security in rural areas.     

Advancing a new index for measuring household vulnerability to food insecurity

This paper develops a Vulnerability to Food Insecurity Index (VFII). Currently, there is no standard indicator of vulnerability analysis in food security research, and this paper responds to this challenge. The primary objective in this paper is to demonstrate how to develop a potential indicator and establish its validity through comparison with other traditional food security indicators, such as per capita calorie consumption (PCC), food consumption score (FCS) and the coping strategy index (CPI). Structurally, Vulnerability to Food Insecurity Index is a multidimensional index of the probability of covariate shock occurring (exposure), the accumulative experience of food insecurity (sensitivity) and coping ability of households (adaptive capacity). The paper applies the index to households in southern Nigeria, using the World Bank’s generalised household panel dataset. The results show 61% of households in the study to be highly vulnerable to food insecurity, 12% mildly vulnerable and 27% not vulnerable. Traditional and single indicators, such as FCS and PCC are not good indicators of vulnerability to food insecurity whereas CPI is a better indicator of vulnerability to food insecurity compared to FCS and PCC. The VFII developed in this paper includes components of FCS, PCC, and CPI and regarding ranking, the VFII was found to be reliable. Most importantly, the analysis using the VFII reveals how dietary diversity or calorie consumption indicators can exclude some households who are vulnerable to food insecurity. The paper concluded that accurately target long-term support to vulnerable households, policymakers who seek to address the underlying causes of food insecurity cannot rely on single indicators, and for this type of goal, the VFII makes a useful contribution.     

Biases in self-reported food insecurity measurement: A list experiment approach

Measuring the incidence and intensity of food insecurity has long been a challenge due to its conceptual and practical complexity. Several scholars have proposed objective and subjective measurements to monitor or evaluate food in(security) programs. While the objective measurements such as food caloric intake and food expenditure are data demanding and costly, the subjective measurements such as experience-based food insecurity scales that use direct responses to food shortage questions can be prone to biases and misreporting due to respondents’ unobservable economic and social desirability concerns. This paper reports the biases when food shortage is asked through direct questions and indirect interviews using a list experiment approach—an approach widely used to elicit the true responses of respondents for a sensitive question. The list experiment was conducted on four selected self-reported food insecurity survey questions which represent both the availability (incidence) and access (intensity) dimensions of food security. The sample households were drawn from two districts in Northern Ethiopia where households are chronically food insecure and several projects have been implemented. The results indicate the existence of significant bias in self-reported food insecurity responses when implemented through direct interviews. The results also show that the biases, particularly the ones related to incidence questions, have led to erroneous conclusion about the impact of a food security program—the Ethiopian Household Asset Building (HAB) program. Based on the findings, the paper highlights possible options and precautionary actions for measuring food insecurity using self-reported questions.     

The impact of maize price shocks on household food security: Panel evidence from Tanzania

Using three waves (2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13) of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, this study investigates the impact of maize price shocks on household food security. Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, calorie intake stagnated for urban households, yet sharply deteriorated for rural households. The latter was driven by a significant decline in the consumption of the major staple maize which showed strongest price hikes among all major food items. Fixed-effects regressions indicate a clear negative relationship between maize prices and average household energy intake. Almost all population groups were found to be negatively affected by maize price shocks, with rural landless households being the most vulnerable group. In particular, a 50 percent rise in maize prices decreases caloric intake for rural (urban) households on average by 4.4 (5.4) percent, and for rural landless households by 12.6 percent. Results further indicate that subsistence agriculture can act as an effective strategy to insure against food price volatility.     

Household income,women’s income share and food calorie intake in South Western Nigeria

Current debates on the nature of intra-household preferences and resource control raises the question of how intra-household redistribution of income from men and women compares with increasing total household income as strategies for increasing calorie intake among low income households. I estimate calorie-income and calorie-women’s income share elasticities for a random sample of low income households from the rural areas of south western Nigeria. I find that calorie-income elasticity is positive and small, 0.194, but four times as large as calorie-women’s income share elasticity, suggesting that calorie intake is affected more by total disposable income than by its distribution pattern. Second, I find a small and negative effect of women’s income share on per caput calorie intake, −0.04, which is a rejection of the hypothesis that increases in women’s share of income will increase calorie intake and suggests that intra-household income re-distribution from men to women may not be an effective policy for increasing food calorie intake among households in the study area.     

Universal food security program and nutritional intake: Evidence from the hunger prone KBK districts in Odisha

This article provides evidence on the role of consumer food subsidies in improving nutritional intake and diet quality by evaluating the expansion of the government food assistance program coverage in the hunger prone state of Odisha in India. In 8 districts of Odisha, popularly known as the Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region which is notable for extreme poverty and starvation deaths, the government did away with the targeted food assistance program in 2008 and made the scheme universal. Using a Difference-in-Difference methodology over two repeated cross sectional household surveys, this article finds that the shift from targeted to a universal food security program in the KBK region of Odisha has led to an improvement in the household nutritional intake and diet quality. Further examination suggests that proportion of households consuming below the recommended dietary allowance of calorie, fats and protein has declined significantly in this region post the intervention.     

Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria

While the poverty implications of off-farm income have been analyzed in different developing countries, much less is known about the impact of off-farm income on household food security and nutrition. Here, this research gap is addressed by using farm survey data from Nigeria. Econometric analyses are employed to examine the mechanisms through which off-farm income affects household calorie and micronutrient supply, dietary quality, and child anthropometry. We find that off-farm income has a positive net effect on food security and nutrition. The prevalence of child stunting, underweight, and wasting is lower in households with off-farm income than in households without. Using a structural model, we also show that off-farm income contributes to higher food production and farm income by easing capital constraints, thus improving household welfare in multiple ways.     

Women’s rank modifies the relationship between household and women’s food insecurity in complex households in northern Burkina Faso

This study examined the relationship between food insecurity at household and woman–children sub-unit levels and factors modifying this relationship in complex households in northern Burkina Faso. Data were collected from 126 households and 176 woman–children sub-units every 6 months from July 2001 to July 2003. Household food insecurity varied more between seasons than did woman–children sub-unit food insecurity. Woman–children sub-unit food insecurity increased when household food insecurity increased. Woman–children sub-units in monogamous households were less food insecure – and more at risk of becoming food insecure when the household became food insecure – than sub-units headed by women with first or second rank in polygamous households. Within polygamous households, woman–children sub-units headed by women with rank third or more were more likely to become food insecure when the household became food insecure than those with first or second rank. These results have implications for design, planning, and evaluation of programs and projects aiming to alleviate food insecurity in this and similar settings.     

Assessing household food insecurity experience in the context of deforestation in Cameroon

BackgroundIn forest areas, reconciling strategies to halt deforestation and concerns to improve sustainable food supply and access is a great challenge to development planners and forest managers. This paper gathered evidence on the relationship between deforestation and food insecurity. The study was executed in Cameroon’s forest areas which constitute 10% of the Congo basin forest - an area characterized by increasing deforestation and high levels of poverty and food insecurity (FIS). The objective was to understand the characteristics, prevalence and severity of household FIS as deforestation increases. The HFIAS 9-item questionnaire for measuring experience-based FIS was used for data collection and analysis.ResultsAt least one-third of households at all levels of deforestation were severely food insecure and more than half of the population suffered from moderate to severe FIS. Most (97%) households reported experiencing food scarcity due to lack of resources. Households in the least deforested zone were better off than those in moderate and most deforested zones by most of the FIS indicators, while differences between the moderately and the most deforested zones were less distinct. Overall, considering a range of food insecurity indicators, households in the most deforested zone were the worst off.ConclusionHousehold FIS deteriorates with increasing deforestation and despite the generally favourable environmental conditions for food production, FIS was still high. This finding has major implications for development practitioners, land use planning, food security and conservation initiatives.     

Filling a dietary data gap? Validation of the adult male equivalent method of estimating individual nutrient intakes from household-level data in Ethiopia and Bangladesh

Many researchers use data from Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCES) to estimate individual food and nutrient intake when individual dietary data are not available. They assume that food is allocated within households according to members’ proportional energy requirements relative to an adult male (called an adult male equivalent, or AME). This study sought to validate AME-based estimates of individual consumption of calories, protein, iron, and animal source protein (ASP) across 10 age-sex categories, using data from Bangladesh and Ethiopia containing both household and individual-level consumption data. The study also assessed the accuracy of adjusting for meal partakers and physical activity levels (PAL), and compared energy-weighted AMEs to nutrient-specific AME predictions.Energy AME-based predictions of nutrient intake were generally accurate within ten percentage points of individually reported intakes, but were less accurate for infants 6–23 months and children in Bangladesh than for other demographic groups. AME predictions were more accurate: (1) in Ethiopia than in Bangladesh, (2) for predicting intake of the three nutrients rather than ASP, (3) for estimating nutrient intake rather than adequacy, (4) using energy-weighted AMEs rather than nutrient specific weights, and (5) using moderate PAL for youth and adults rather than high PAL. Adjusting for meal partakers did not consistently improve the AME-based predictions. Energy based AME estimates from household data can produce a useful proxy of average intake for certain population subgroups, however individually measured dietary assessment remains the best approach to identify groups at risk of nutrient inadequacy.     

Alternative food-security indicators: revisiting the frequency and severity of `coping strategies'

Recent research on the multi-factorial nature of food security has provided a wealth of analytical insight, but measurement problems remain a major challenge, not only for research, but particularly for targeting, program management, monitoring and evaluation. Building on an approach suggested in a 1996 article, this paper constructs a series of alternative food-security indicators based on the frequency and severity of consumption-related coping strategies. These alternative indicators are then compared with more standard measures, including a consumption benchmark, a poverty benchmark and a nutritional benchmark using data from the 1997 Accra Urban Food and Nutrition Study. Against these more traditional indicators, the coping strategy indicators are best at ruling out cases—that is, minimizing the risk of classifying a food-insecure household as food-secure. They also help to identify sources of vulnerability and the trade-offs made with other basic needs to acquire sufficient food. The measures outlined here are much less time-consuming and less expensive in terms of data collection and analysis, and therefore perhaps offer a pragmatic alternative to food and livelihood program managers. However, the comparative analysis of conventional benchmarks with the coping strategies indicator reveals some shortcomings with the benchmark indicators as well—a sign that perhaps the indicators of food security proposed here are both alternative and complementary measures.     

The impact of migration on food consumption patterns: The case of Vietnam

This paper explores the relationship between migration and consumption patterns using panel data from the 2004 and 2006 Vietnam Household Living Standards Surveys. Employing an instrumental variable approach to control for the endogeneity of migration, our results indicate that short-term migration has a positive effect on overall per capita food expenditures, per capita calorie consumption and food diversity. Long-term migration also appears to be positively related to consumption, but impacts are often insignificant and of a lesser magnitude than short-term migration. The results provide no evidence of negative effects of migration, and support the view that short-term migration is a mechanism by which households maintain food security. The results suggest that to improve food security the Vietnamese government should enact policies that facilitate short-term migration flows as well as the transferring of remittances.     

Household history,SNAP participation,and food insecurity

Food security in an important public policy issue. In 2015, approximately 1 in 8 U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point in the year. Low-income families are at higher risk for food insecurity than other families, and these families may also face higher levels of disruption (e.g., moves, loss of income, or individuals entering or leaving the household) than other families. I use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to explore the relationship between food insecurity, the household’s history during the previous year, and SNAP participation. The results indicate that a number of aspects of the household’s recent experience including negative income shocks, moves, and both increases and decreases in household size increase the probability of being food insecure while SNAP participation is estimated to reduce the probability of being food insecure.     

Coming to terms with vulnerability: a critique of the food security definition

This paper seeks to improve the practice of vulnerability assessment for food security purposes by addressing long-standing issues that have hampered the development of both theory and methods. In food security contexts, vulnerability is usually defined in relation to an outcome, such as hunger, food insecurity or famine. This precludes employing the concept for the more specific task of evaluating the susceptibility of a population to explicitly-identified exogenous events or shocks that could lead to these outcomes. This lack of specificity has clouded interpretation of causal factors of food insecurity and famine. Alternatively, in a widely-applied framework for disaster risk assessment, the concept of vulnerability serves the more specific purpose of identifying characteristics of population groups or other elements that make them more or less susceptible to experiencing damage when exposed to particular hazards or shocks. Risks of negative outcomes are created by the combination of hazards and vulnerability, and vulnerability is defined by its relation to hazards rather than directly in relation to the outcomes themselves. The result has been an easier and more transparent translation of concepts into practice. That this latter formulation can also be applied in the food security context is illustrated through an analysis of food security risks in Tanzania. The analysis identifies economic alternatives households can exercise to meet their minimum annual food requirements. Exogenous threats or shocks that can suppress or eliminate particular alternatives exercised by different groups are identified as a means of assessing households' vulnerability and consequently their risks of becoming food insecure, or falling below the minimum threshold.     

Urban agriculture,poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing countries

Urban agriculture may have a role to play in addressing urban food insecurity problems, which are bound to become increasingly important with the secular trend towards the urbanization of poverty and of population in developing regions. Our understanding of the importance, nature and food security implications of urban agriculture is however plagued by a lack of good quality, reliable data. While studies based on survey data do exist for several major cities, much of the evidence is still qualitative if not anecdotal. Using a recently created dataset bringing together comparable, nationally representative household survey data for 15 developing or transition countries, this paper analyzes in a comparative international perspective the importance of urban agriculture for the urban poor and food insecure. Some clear hints do come from our analysis. On the one hand, the potential for urban agriculture to play a substantial role in urban poverty and food insecurity reduction should not be overemphasised, as its share in income and overall agricultural production is often quite limited. On the other hand, though, its role should also not be too easily dismissed, particularly in much of Africa and in all those countries in which agriculture provides a substantial share of income for the urban poor, and for those groups of households to which it constitutes an important source of livelihoods. We also find fairly consistent evidence of a positive statistical association between engagement in urban agriculture and dietary adequacy indicators.     

The dynamics of livelihood diversification in post-famine Ethiopia

Based on data for almost 300 households this paper explores associations among income diversification, household perceptions of livelihood risks, and changes in consumption outcomes across two points in time in post-famine Ethiopia. Four key questions are addressed: i) To what extent did households emerging from the famine period with relatively higher income and calorie consumption levels also have a more diversified income base?; ii) Was higher income diversification in 1989 associated with higher income and consumption levels by 1994?; iii) Which households increased their share of income from non-cropping activities most during the inter-survey years?; and iv) Did household heads perceive a lack of non-farm income activities to be an important risk factor in famine vulnerability? We find that wealthier households tended to have more diversified income streams; those initially more diversified subsequently experienced a relatively greater increase in both income and calorie intake; households with a greater concentration of assets were more likely to fall in their relative outcome ranking (as were female-headed households); and, initially less diversified households subsequently realized greater gains in income diversification. We also find suggestive evidence that personal perceptions of risk factors guided subsequent diversification decisions.     

Food aid,domestic policy and food security: Contrasting experiences from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa

Food aid, both for short-term emergency relief and as program food aid that helps address medium-term food “deficits”, is often a major component of food security strategies in developing countries. This study reviews the experience with food aid of four major recipients of food aid (India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Zambia) regarding food production, trade, markets, consumption and safety nets, as well as the policy responses to food emergencies. The widely varying experiences of the study countries suggest that food aid that supports building of production and market enhancing infrastructure, is timed to avoid adverse price effects on producers, and is targeted to food insecure households can play a positive role in enhancing food security. However, food aid is not the only, or in many cases, the most efficient means of addressing food insecurity. In many cases private markets can more effectively address shortfalls in food availability and cash transfers may be a viable alternative to food transfers in-kind.     

Addressing food security in Africa via multiple livelihood strategies of women farmers

Because food insecurity is primarily a problem of low household incomes and poverty, and not just inadequate food production, projects and programs for food insecure African farmers which aim at increasing production of subsistence crops may be ineffective. Instead, government should look for ways to improve returns to farmers' resources in a broader context, which may include expanded opportunities for non-farm microenterprises and agricultural labor. This has been the conventional wisdom since the writings of Amartya Sen. Still unclear, however, are the implications of his thinking for the roles of African women farmers who are traditionally the food-crop producers in Africa and are often food insecure. Immediate expansion of income-earning activities such as cash cropping and non-farm microenterprises may not be possible for women in male headed households in many African societies where cash income is seen as part of the male domain. In addition, women farmers may need a long adjustment period to diversify their income sources fully because most African countries are at the early stages of structural transformation. Different developmental interventions, both in policy and in technology, are therefore needed to address food security and economic transformations in Africa in the short and long term.