 |
 |
 |  |  |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| |
|  | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Building Household Food Security Measurement Tools from the Ground Up (2001)
Published in the Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 22, no. 1 (2001) of the United Nations University
Humanitarian relief and development organizations need to measure household food security to plan and target programs and to monitor and evaluate their impact. Availability of food is only one component of household food security. Existing measures of regional or local food availability are therefore often inadequate for project-level decision making. 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 might not apply to many developing countries, the approach might.
This paper explored 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.
