Showing papers by "Luc Christiaensen published in 2000"
TL;DR: It is feasible to approximate both household wealth and expenditures in rural African settings without dramatically lengthening questionnaires that have a primary focus on health outcomes.
Abstract: STUDY OBJECTIVE To test the validity of proxy measures of household wealth and income that can be readily implemented in health surveys in rural Africa. DESIGN Data are drawn from four different integrated household surveys. The assumptions underlying the choice of wealth proxy are described, and correlations with the true value are assessed in two different settings. The expenditure proxy is developed and then tested for replicability in two independent datasets representing the same population. SETTING Rural areas of Mali, Malawi, and Cote d9Ivoire (two national surveys). PARTICIPANTS Random sample of rural households in each setting (n=275, 707, 910, and 856, respectively). MAIN RESULTS In both Mali and Malawi, the wealth proxy correlated highly ( r ⩾0.74) with the more complex monetary value method. For rural areas of Cote d9Ivoire, it was possible to generate a list of just 10 expenditure items, the values of which when summed correlated highly with expenditures on all items combined ( r =0.74, development dataset, r =0.72, validation dataset). Total household expenditure is an accepted alternative to household income in developing country settings. CONCLUSIONS It is feasible to approximate both household wealth and expenditures in rural African settings without dramatically lengthening questionnaires that have a primary focus on health outcomes.
444 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a methodology to measure empirically household food vulnerability is defined in terms of the probability now of being undernourished in the future, defined as the probability that a household will be underfed.
Abstract: This study illustrates a methodology to measure empirically household food vulnerability Food vulnerability is defined in terms of the probability now of being undernourished in the future The empirical analysis is based on panel data from northern Mali, collected in 1997-98 Our empirical results clearly show that even though the groups of currently undernourished and food vulnerable households overlap, they are far from identical Female-headed households appear less vulnerable to drought shocks, partly due to community solidarity Households with good harvests are also less vulnerable, though greater dependence on agriculture attenuates this effect Official food aid and family food gifts are important insurance mechanisms Simulations indicate that food vulnerability can be significantly reduced through off-farm employment generation in the area and greater access to irrigation infrastructure
179 citations
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared information obtained using participatory appraisal techniques with a survey of households randomly drawn from a locally administered census that had been carefully revised, and found that the revised official census produces higher estimates of average household size and wealth but lower estimates of total village size or wealth, than the community map.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether inferences drawn about a population are sensitive to the manner by which those data are obtained. It compares information obtained using participatory appraisal techniques with a survey of households randomly drawn from a locally administered census that had been carefully revised. The community map tends to include households that do not, in fact, reside in the enumerated locality. By contrast, the revised official census is slightly more likely to exclude households who actually lived in the surveyed area. Controlling for the survey technique, we find that the revised official census produces higher estimates of average household size and wealth but lower estimates of total village size or wealth, than the community map. Pairwise comparison of the survey techniques, holding the households constant, shows that the community map leads, on average, to higher estimates of household size and lower estimates of wealth.
102 citations
TL;DR: This paper developed an explicitly forward-looking food insecurity indicator and relative to this dynamic benchmark, evaluated the performance of three readily available indicators: an agricultural production, a dietary diversity, and a coping strategy index.
Abstract: Food security indicators used in practice are static in nature, thereby foregoing the key dimension of food security. This study develops an explicitly forward-looking food insecurity indicator and relative to this dynamic benchmark, we evaluate the performance of three readily available indicators: an agricultural production, a dietary diversity, and a coping strategy index. Calculation of our “gold standard” indicator, using panel data of 274 households from Mali, shows that neglecting the future may lead to substantial underestimation of a population’s food insecurity. However, when compared to our “gold standard”, the alternative indicators all identify most of the food insecure, with the coping strategy index displaying the most predictive power. This is an important result, given the great demand for operational, inexpensive and reliable food insecurity indicators.
7 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed an explicitly forward-looking indicator of food insecurity that takes into account both current dietary inadequacy and vulnerability to nutritional inadequacy in the future and evaluated the performance of three readily available alternative indicators: an agricultural production index, a dietary diversity index, and a coping strategy index.
Abstract: The authors develop an explicitly forward-looking indicator of food insecurity that takes into account both current dietary inadequacy and vulnerability to dietary inadequacy in the future. Application of this measure to data from northern Mali shows that neglecting the future dimension of food insecurity causes serious underestimation of food insecurity in this area. The authors evaluate the performance, relative to their dynamic bemchmark, of three readily available alternative indicators: an agricultural production index, a dietary diversity index, and a coping strategy index. Despite the uneven performance of these indexes relative to the individual components of the dynamic food insecurity indicator developed in the paper, they all demonstrate strong associations with that indicator. This is a promising result, given the urgent demand for reliable indicators of food insecurity.
5 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors compared information obtained using participatory appraisal techniques with a survey of households randomly drawn from a locally administered census that had been carefully revised, and found that the revised official census produces higher estimates of average household size and wealth but lower estimates of total village size or wealth, than the community map.
Abstract: This paper investigates whether inferences drawn about a population are sensitive to the manner by which those data are obtained It compares information obtained using participatory appraisal techniques with a survey of households randomly drawn from a locally administered census that had been carefully revised The community map tends to include household members who do not, in fact, reside in the enumerated locality By contrast, the revised official census is slightly more likely to exclude household members who actually lived in the surveyed area Controlling for the survey technique, we find that the revised official census produces higher estimates of average household size and wealth but lower estimates of total village size or wealth, than the community map Pairwise comparison of the survey techniques, holding the households constant, shows that the community map leads, on average, to higher estimates of household size and lower estimates of wealth
2 citations