Build it back better: Deconstructing food security for improved measurement and action
TL;DR: This paper traces the evolution of food security concepts and measures up through the first decade of the 21st century, proposes indicators to represent these five dimensions, and highlights areas where the development of new metrics is warranted.
About: This article is published in Global Food Security.The article was published on 2013-09-01. It has received 239 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Food security.
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TL;DR: Clarity is brought in the assessment of the food access dimension of food security at the household and individual level by recommending the use of experience-based indicators, HDDS, or FCS to assess household access to energy.
Abstract: Background:With food security now a top priority for many governments and for the global development community, there is heightened awareness of the need to improve our understanding and measuremen...
290 citations
Cites result from "Build it back better: Deconstructin..."
...Conclusions Our study supports the conclusions from several recent reviews of food security measurement that no single indicator can or should be used to capture the complex reality of food security, and that a suite of indicators might be useful for this purpose.(1,7,8,10,12,83) It also reemphasizes the need to harmonize indicators, use a common framework and terminology, and develop and validate indicators that have a stated purpose....
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International Livestock Research Institute1, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center2, Wageningen University and Research Centre3, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation4, Lund University5, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology6, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture7
TL;DR: There is a strong need for multisectoral policy harmonization and incentives and improved interconnectedness of people to urban centers and diversification of employment sources rather than a singular focus on agricultural development of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract: We calculated a simple indicator of food availability using data from 93 sites in 17 countries across contrasted agroecologies in sub-Saharan Africa (>13,000 farm households) and analyzed the drivers of variations in food availability. Crop production was the major source of energy, contributing 60% of food availability. The off-farm income contribution to food availability ranged from 12% for households without enough food available (18% of the total sample) to 27% for the 58% of households with sufficient food available. Using only three explanatory variables (household size, number of livestock, and land area), we were able to predict correctly the agricultural determined status of food availability for 72% of the households, but the relationships were strongly influenced by the degree of market access. Our analyses suggest that targeting poverty through improving market access and off-farm opportunities is a better strategy to increase food security than focusing on agricultural production and closing yield gaps. This calls for multisectoral policy harmonization, incentives, and diversification of employment sources rather than a singular focus on agricultural development. Recognizing and understanding diversity among smallholder farm households in sub-Saharan Africa is key for the design of policies that aim to improve food security.
256 citations
Cites background from "Build it back better: Deconstructin..."
...This indicator of food security does not cover all of the complexity contained in the concept of food (in)security (33, 34)....
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TL;DR: Sustainability should be considered as part of the long-term time dimension in the assessment of food security, and can play a key role as a goal and a way of maintaining nutritional well-being and health, while ensuring the sustainability for future food security.
Abstract: Objective To position the concept of sustainability within the context of food security. Design An overview of the interrelationships between food security and sustainability based on a non-systematic literature review and informed discussions based principally on a quasi-historical approach from meetings and reports. Setting International and global food security and nutrition. Results The Rome Declaration on World Food Security in 1996 defined its three basic dimensions as: availability, accessibility and utilization, with a focus on nutritional well-being. It also stressed the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and the elimination of unsustainable patterns of food consumption and production. In 2009, at the World Summit on Food Security, the concept of stability/vulnerability was added as the short-term time indicator of the ability of food systems to withstand shocks, whether natural or man-made, as part of the Five Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security. More recently, intergovernmental processes have emphasized the importance of sustainability to preserve the environment, natural resources and agro-ecosystems (and thus the overlying social system), as well as the importance of food security as part of sustainability and vice versa. Conclusions Sustainability should be considered as part of the long-term time dimension in the assessment of food security. From such a perspective the concept of sustainable diets can play a key role as a goal and a way of maintaining nutritional well-being and health, while ensuring the sustainability for future food security. Without integrating sustainability as an explicit (fifth?) dimension of food security, today’s policies and programmes could become the very cause of increased food insecurity in the future.
214 citations
Cites background from "Build it back better: Deconstructin..."
...Many other indices are available and the topic has recently been summarized by other researchers((56)), criticized((61)) and queried((62))....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors 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.
196 citations
TL;DR: Lead (Pb) is the second most toxic heavy metal after arsenic (As), which has no role in biological systems, and its exposure at higher rates disturbs the plant water and nutritional relations and causes oxidative damages to plants.
190 citations
References
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4,200 citations
01 Jan 2007
1,343 citations
TL;DR: The Expert Panel recognized that they could not provide a comprehensive design for the evaluation of nutritional status for all difficult-to-sample populations that would be appropriate for all public health and policy purposes and concentrated their discussions on enumeration of the various issues that must be considered in planning any effort to evaluate the nutritional concerns for such populations.
Abstract: The report provides an introduction to the concept of nutritional state and the components that must be considered in identifying core indicators for its assessment in difficult-to-sample populations. These components include food security, nutritional concerns, survey coverage, and sampling concerns. Core indicators of nutritional state are suggested in the context of the purposes for which the data are to be used
1,149 citations
TL;DR: There is an association between child dietary diversity and nutritional status that is independent of socioeconomic factors, and that dietary diversity may indeed reflect diet quality, which is suggested to be recommended for widespread use as an indicator of diet quality.
Abstract: Simple indicators reflecting diet quality for young children are needed both for programs and in some research contexts. Measures of dietary diversity are relatively simple and were shown to be associated with nutrient adequacy and nutritional status. However, dietary diversity also tends to increase with income and wealth; thus, the association between dietary diversity and child nutrition may be confounded by socioeconomic factors. We used data from 11 recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to examine the association between dietary diversity and height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) for children 6-23 mo old, while controlling for household wealth/welfare and several other potentially confounding factors. Bivariate associations between dietary diversity and HAZ were observed in 9 of the 11 countries. Dietary diversity remained significant as a main effect in 7 countries in multivariate models, and interacted significantly with other factors (e.g., child age, breast-feeding status, urban/rural location) in 3 of the 4 remaining countries. Thus, dietary diversity was significantly associated with HAZ, either as a main effect or in an interaction, in all but one of the countries analyzed. These findings suggest that there is an association between child dietary diversity and nutritional status that is independent of socioeconomic factors, and that dietary diversity may indeed reflect diet quality. Before dietary diversity can be recommended for widespread use as an indicator of diet quality, additional research is required to confirm and clarify relations between various dietary diversity indicators and nutrient intake, adequacy, and density, for children with differing dietary patterns.
1,036 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that vulnerability, more than poverty, is linked with net assets, and that the tradeoffs between poverty and vulnerability are not, one for one, the same as programmes and policies to reduce poverty to raise incomes.
Abstract: ¡OS fjullcq,n. vol 20 no 2. Inst tute of Des elopntent Sitahes, Sussex these flows. Indicators of poverty are then easily taken as indicators of other dimensions of deprivation. including vulnerability. But vulnerability, more than poverty, is linked with net assets. Poverty, in the sense of low income, can he reduced by borrowing and ;nvesting: hut such debt makes households more vulnerable. Poor people, in their horror of debt, appear more aware than professionals of the tradeoffs between poverty and vulnerability. Programmes and policies to reduce vulnerability to make more secure are not, one for one, the same as programmes and policies to reduce poverty to raise incomes.
1,033 citations