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Building Household Food Security Measurement Tools from the Ground Up
Published in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 22, no.1 (2001) of the United Nations University
Humanitarian relief and development organizations increasingly need to measure household food security to monitor and evaluate the impact of programs and make planning and targeting decisions. Existing measures of regional or local food availability are often inadequate for project-level decisionmaking, since availability is only one component of household food security. Other components such as access to food and certainty of the food supply are also important. One way to develop measures with these components is to base them on food insecurity at the household level, this was done for the U.S. Food Security Measure. Although the U.S. measure may not be applicable to many developing countries, the approach may well be.
This paper explores the potential for developing improved measures of the access component of household food security. Relevant conceptual and measurement issues are discussed, followed by a review of the U.S. approach and examples of efforts in developing countries. The potential portability and challenges of applying the U.S. approach to developing countries are also discussed. The elements needed to apply this approach are outlined, along with operations research needed for developing such experiential-based measures.
