Structure
Contributing Factors and Food Security Dimensions
- oAgriculture
- oLivestock
- oMarkets
- oWater and Sanitation
- oFeeding Practices
1st level Food Security Outcome Indicators
2nd level outcome indicators
Monitoring Evaluation Accountability & Learning
Four Pillars of Food Security:
For food security objectives to be realized, all four dimensions must be fulfilled simultaneously
- Physical AVAILABILITY of food
Food availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the level of food production, stock levels and net trade
- Economic, physical and social ACCESS to food
An adequate supply of food at the national or international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security. Concerns about insufficient food access have resulted in a greater policy focus on incomes, expenditure, markets and prices in achieving food security objectives.
- Food UTILIZATION
Utilization is commonly understood as the way the body makes the most of various nutrients in the food. Sufficient energy and nutrient intake by individuals is the result of good care and feeding practices, food preparation, diversity of the diet and intra-household distribution of food. Combined with good biological utilization of food consumed, this determines the nutritional status of individuals
- STABILITY of the other three dimensions over time
Even if your food intake is adequate today, you are still considered to be food insecure if you have inadequate access to food on a periodic basis, risking a deterioration of your nutritional status. Adverse weather conditions, political instability, or economic factors (unemployment, rising food prices) may have an impact on your food security status.
General Guidance on Indicators:
oPairing proxies for food quantity with food quality (i.e. FCS and HHS)oExamining different wealth groups and vulnerabilities in relation to outcome indicators – i.e. Households with poor food consumption scores and the percentage of household expenditure on food.
oThe primary use of the LCS is to know if households are using coping strategies to maintain or mitigate food consumption gaps – which is a sign of food insecurity.oFor example, a household may have a low HHS (0-2) and borderline FCS; indicating only moderate food consumption gaps. However, they may be engaging in multiple emergency level livelihood coping strategies, suggesting that the household is only able to meet food consumption gaps by engaging in unsustainable livelihood coping. Such as excess selling of livestock, consuming green harvest, selling household assets, or begging.
Guidance for Indicator Selection:
It is advisable to limit the number of indicators selected to those that are required based on the objective of the survey and reporting. Since all context are unique in varying degrees and reporting requirements may change, it is not possible to give a set of indicators to always collect. However, there are guidline that can be followed:
-1st level: Food Consumption Score, Household Diet Diversity Score, Reduced Coping Strategy Index, Household Hunger Scale, Livelihood Coping Strategy.-2nd level: Global Acute Malnutrition by Weight for Height (GAM WHZ), Under Five Crude Death Rate (U5 CDR), Crude Death Rate (CDR)
Note on Disaggregation
Disaggregation of data will be especially helpful for determining which groups are most at risk and affected by a crisis. As appropriate, each indicator should be disaggregated by sex (male/female), age, beneficiary category, pregnant and lactating women, people living with HIV, disability, traders, market actors, producers, activity, food assistance (fortified blended foods, ready to use foods, special nutritional products), non-food item, agricultural item, urban/rural areas, head of household (female headed HH, child (male/female) headed HH [under 18], person with disability headed HH, elderly (male/female) headed HH [over 60]), religious, ethnic or political identities, community and household. The effectiveness of different indicators by different disaggregation can change with location and time; the factors by which data can be stratified should be selected on the basis of the situation analysis.
Contact us
PQWG Co-Chair: Matthew Day
PQWG Co-Chair: Julie March
gFSC Focal Point: Davide Rossi and Pardie Karamanoukian
