Food and Nutrition Security (FNS)

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Outline
• Overview of food and nutrition security
• Differences between food insecurity, hunger and famine
• Dimensions of FNS
• Reasons for FN insecurity
• Assessment methods of FNS

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 Definition of food insecurity
 Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life
 Food self-sufficiency is described as being able to meet consumption needs (particularly
for staple food crops) from own production rather than by buying or importing
 Hunger is uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food.
 Involuntary hunger that results from not being able to afford enough food
 The recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food
 May produce malnutrition over time

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Components of the food security definition

Key question Indicator

Who should get the food?  Everyone/ all people (Universality)

When?  At all times/ sustained access (Stability)

 Through normal food channels/ not from
How?
emergency assistance program (Dignity)
How much food?  Enough/ enough for a healthy active life
(quantity)
 Safe and nutritious (safety)
 Culturally appropriate (quality)
What kind of food?  Produced in environmentally sustainable ways
that promote communities (quality)

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Definition of nutrition security
 Nutrition security exists when appropriately nutritious diet is combined with a sanitary
environment, adequate health services, and proper care and feeding practices to ensure a
healthy life for all household members
 The current approach in addressing nutrition security focuses on 3 pronged
factors (food, heath and care)
 The pillars of nutrition security comprises a framework called the “food-
care-health framework”

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 Conceptual framework for FNS

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Relationship b e t w e e n nutrition insecurity and food insecurity

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Relationship between malnutrition and food insecurity can be visualized as
overlapping domains

Food Insecure
Malnourished

Temporary food
insecurity
Malnourished due to Malnourished and
non food reasons food insecure
At risk of future food
insecurity

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 Hunger, malnutrition and poverty

Hunger

Food insecurity

Malnutrition
Poverty

It’s important to understand how these concepts are related to food

insecurity. To what extent do they overlap? In what ways do they differ?

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Reasons for FN insecurity
• Vulnerability due to social marginalisation or exclusion
• Households with limited access to land or sources of income
• Poor households who spend a large proportion of their income on food
• Female or child-headed households
• Households with chronically ill members (HIV/AIDS and others)
• Households located in drought-prone regions
• Displaced persons, refugees and those socially isolated, blocked or confined
• Unequal distribution of food within the household: women and children often
eat last and consume less nutritious food

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Dimensions of FNS
1. Categorical dimension
2. Socio-organizational dimension
3. Managerial dimension
4. Situation-related dimension

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1. Categorical dimension
A. Conceptual framework of food security

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B. The conceptual framework of malnutrition

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C. T h e conceptual framework of the nutritional status at household level

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2. The socio-organizational dimension

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Merging of the categorical and the socio-organizational dimensions

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3. The managerial dimension

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4. The situation-related dimension

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Forms of food insecurity
• Chronic food insecurity: is the result of overwhelming poverty indicated by lack of
assets
• Acute/transitory food insecurity: is a transitory phenomenon related to man made and
natural shocks such as drought
• Both chronic and transitory of food insecurities are widespread and severe in Ethiopia

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Different stage of food insecurity and copping mechanisms

St a g e of food insecurity process Coping mecha nisms (household level)

Food insecurity Insurance strategies
 Reversible coping
 Preserving productive assets
 Reduced food intake, etc.

Food crisis Crisis strategies

 Irreversible coping
 Threatening future livelihood
 Sale of productive assets, etc.

Fa mine a n d dea th Distress strategies

 N o coping
 Starvation and death
 N o more coping mechanisms

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Famine
• Is the last stage of food insecurity and defined as a catastrophic food crisis that results
in widespread acute malnutrition and mass mortality (USAID definition of famine)
• This definition was critiqued for failing short of capturing
 Accelerated deterioration of conditions that precede famine condition—the
early warning signs
 Broader crisis that includes health and physical security
 The range of livelihood crises that underpin famine vulnerability
 The trajectory of famine conditions and the broader crisis in the context of diseases
pandemic (e.g. HIV/AIDS)

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 The famine intensity level
• Provides a clear-cut way of capturing the localized conditions at a certain point in
time that can:
– Derive appropriate intervention
– Provide means of monitoring the situation
– Allow stakeholders to prioritize resource allocations based on need
• Famine is classified by using:
A. Famine intensity scale
B. Magnitude scale

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A. The famine intensity scale
• There are five scales which are a continuum of trajectory from early warning signs
to famine with a devastating mass death
• There are objective indicators for each category

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d

Intensity scale 0: food insecurity conditions

• CMR < 0.2/10,000/day
• Wasting < 2.3%
• Social system is cohesive
• Prices are stable
• Negligible use of coping strategies

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d

Intensity scale 1: food insecurity conditions

• CMR >= 0.2 but < 0.5/10,000/day
• AND/OR wasting >= 2.3% but <10%
• Social system remains cohesive;
• Price instability and seasonal shortage of key items;
• Reversible coping strategies taken (e.g., mild food rationing)

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d
Intensity scale 2: food crisis conditions
• CMR >= 0.5 but < 1/10,000/day
• AND/OR wasting >= 10% but < 20%
• Social system is significantly stressed but remains largely cohesive;
• Dramatic rise in price of food;
• Reversible coping strategies start to fail;
• Increased adoption of ‘irreversible ’ coping strategies

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d
Intensity scale 3: famine conditions
• CMR> =1 but < 5/10,000/day
• AND/OR wasting >= 20% but < 40%
• Clear signs of social breakdown appear;
• Markets begin to close or collapse;
• Coping strategies exhausted,
• Survival strategies are more common;
• Affected populations identify food as the dominant problem at the onset of the crisis

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d

Intensity scale 4: severe famine conditions

• CMR >= 5 but < 15/10,000/day
• AND/OR wasting >= 40%
• Widespread social breakdown;
• Markets are closed or inaccessible to the affected populations;
• Survival strategies are widespread

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 The famine intensity scale…cont’d

Intensity scale 5: extreme famines conditions

 CMR > 15/10,000/day
 Complete social breakdown;
 Widespread mortality

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B. Magnitude scale

• Magnitude is determined ex-post by measuring excess human mortality based on the

scale from minor famine to catastrophic famine
• The intensity and magnitude scales are not meant to replace the early warning
systems to but to complement them

Type of famine # of people affected

A. Minor famine 0-999
B. Moderate famine 1,000-9,999
C. Major famine 10,000-99,999
D. Great famine 100,000-999,999
E. Catastrophic famine 1,000,000 and over

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Cross cutting issues in food and nutrition security
• Food and Nutrition Security is linked to a number of cross cutting issues in development
of individuals and societies. These include:
 FNS and gender
 FNS and poverty
 FNS and HIV/Aids
 FNS in the context of conflicts, crises and natural disasters

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Reading assignment:
• The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)
 IPC-1 (minimal)
 IPC-2 (stressed)
 IPC-3 (crisis)
 IPC-4 (emergency)
 IPC-5 (famine)

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 Assessing food and nutritional security situations

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Categories and indicators to assess FNS
1. National data
• Five indicators at country level, from national accounts or international trade
2. Market data
• Three indicators about markets, involving people located elsewhere
3. Household or individual recall
• Seven indicators from surveys about families or individuals
4. Anthropometric measurement
• Five indicators of body size, using heights and weights or circumferences

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 Categories and indicators to assess FNS…cont’d

5. Prevalence of undernourishment
• Two indicators that combine data from categories 1‐4
6. Biomarkers and clinical data
• Three indicators obtained from biological samples or clinical services
7. Breastfeeding and sanitation
• Four indicators about a mother‐child dyad or a community
8. Composite and multidimensional measures
• Four indicators that combine different kinds of observations

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Category 1 (National data)
• Five indicators observed at the country level:
 Dietary energy in the food supply (kcal/capita, or pct of requirements)
 Dietary quality of the food supply (g/capita of each nutrient or food)
 Diversity of food supply (Shannon‐type indexes of attributes or sources)
 Variability of the food supply (std. deviations of kcal/capita over time)
 Public expenditure (% of spending, or specific commitments)

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Category 2 (market data)
Three indicators observed in market places, with many participants: from price data, at any
scale:
• Domestic food price index (local food prices relative to other prices)
• Food affordability indexes (local food prices relative to labor earnings)
• Volatility of food prices (standard deviations of prices over time)

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 Thank you!

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