Household
surveys
Global
quantitative
indicators
Individual
food
intake
surveys
Household
surveys
Individual
food
intake
surveys
Global quantitative
indicators
The index of
Prevalence of
Undernourishment
FAO
The Global Hunger
index
IFPRI
The Poverty and
Hunger index and a
Measure of Progress
towards MDG 1
Gentilini
and Webb
Household
surveys
Individual
food
intake
surveys
Global quantitative
indicators
The index of
Prevalence of
Undernourishment
FAO
The Global Hunger
index
IFPRI
The Poverty and
Hunger index and a
Measure of Progress
towards MDG 1
Gentilini
and Webb
The index of Prevalence of
Undernourishment
The FAO measure of food deprivation, referred
as the prevalence of undernourishment, is based
on a comparison of usual food consumption
expressed in terms of dietary energy (kcal) with
minimum energy requirement norms
The part of the population with food
consumption below the minimum
energy requirement is considered
underfed or food deprived
Number of undernourished people
1. Probability that a person’s dietary energy intake falls
below the minimum individual dietary requirement
rL
P(U ) = P( x < rL ) = ∫ f ( x )dx = Fx (rL )
x
P(U) = the FAO indicator of the prevalence of undernourishment
(x) = dietary energy intake
rL = minimum energy requirement
f(x) = function of distribution of the dietary energy consumption
F(x) = cumulative distribution function (assumed to be
lognormal)
(The area under the curve)
is the proportion of the
population corresponding to
different per caput dietary
energy consumption levels
(x) represented by the
horizontal line
http://www.fao.org/hunger/en/
Household
surveys
Individual
food
intake
surveys
Global quantitative
indicators
The index of
Prevalence of
Undernourishment
FAO
The Global Hunger
index
IFPRI
The Poverty and
Hunger index and a
Measure of Progress
towards MDG 1
Gentilini
and Webb
The Global Hunger Index
GHI enables to have a broader and more comprehensive
view of the status of food insecurity than the FAO indicator
P(U ) + CUW + CM
GHI =
3
P(U) = The FAO indicator of the prevalence of undernourishment
CUW = Prevalence of underweight in children under five
CM = Mortality rate of children under five
3 = the estimated weight of each component is 1/3
The Index varies between
a minimum of zero and
a maximum of 100
but these extremes do not occur in practice.
The maximum value of 100 would be reached only if all children died before
their fifth birthday, the whole population were undernourished, and all
children younger than five were underweight.
The minimum value of zero would mean that a country had no
undernourished people in the population, no children younger than five who
were underweight, and no children who died before their fifth birthday.
Household
surveys
Individual
food
intake
surveys
Global quantitative
indicators
The index of
Prevalence of
Undernourishment
FAO
The Global Hunger
index
IFPRI
The Poverty and
Hunger index and a
Measure of Progress
towards MDG 1
Gentilini
and Webb
2001 United Nation General Assembly
Target 1 – Reduce by half the proportion
of people living on less than a dollar
Target 2 – Reduce by half the proportion
of people who suffer from hunger
The Poverty and Hunger index and a
Measure of Progress towards MDG
Five indicators are used to measure progress towards MDG-1,
1 different aspects of poverty
each of which reflects somewhat
and hunger:
1. The proportion of people living in poverty (on less than
US$1/day);
2. The poverty gap (an indicator for measuring how ‘poor are
the poor’);
3. The share of national income or consumption enjoyed by
those in the lowest quintile of income distribution (a measure
of inequality);
4. The proportion of people undernourished (a measure of food
availability in a country);
5. The prevalence of underweight preschool children (a
measure of child malnutrition)
1st step - The PHI is established as
follows:
2nd step - calculating the MoP involves normalizing the 5 PHI dimensions
above mentioned in terms of progress towards 2015 based on PHI status in
1990. The normalization of dimension i (Ni) is derived by applying the usual
formula involving an observation rate (2000i), and maximum and minimum
rates (2015i and 1990i respectively):
Values range from 1 to -∞, where reaching 1 means reaching the dimensional
goal (e.g. halving poverty according to 1990 levels by 2015), 0.5 indicates
being on track with the dimensional goal, 0 is equal having made no progress,
and negative numbers indicate a reversing trend.
3rd step
Measure of MDG-1 Progress (MoP) 1990-2000
Household
surveys
Global quantitative
indicators
Individual
food
intake
surveys
WFP: a proposed algorithm for classifying
households into food security groups
Current consumption status
Based on the FCS oa a simple average of
available previosuly tested food consumption
indicators, each placed on a 4 point scale
Household coping capacity
Based on income status and asset deplation
indicators, each placed on a 4-point scale and
combine with a simple average
Food security
groups (1-4)
Based on simple average
of summary measures of
food consumption and
coping capacity
Food security groups
Food Security
Group
Household Group Condition
Food Secure
Able to meet essential food and non-food needs without
depletion of assets
Marginally Food
Insecure
Has minimally adequate food consumption, but unable
to afford some essential non-food expenditures without
depletion of assets
Moderately Food
Insecure
Has food consumption gaps, OR, Marginally able to meet
minimum food needs only with accelerated depletion of
livelihood assets
Severely Food
Insecure
Has large food consumption gaps, OR, Has extreme loss
of livelihood assets that will lead to large food
consumption gaps, OR worse.
Current consumption status
Food consumption
score
Household calories
adequacy
Household hunger
scale
Summary of food
consumption
From FCS or average of
available indicators
Food consumption score
Definition
FCS is a score calculated using the
frequency of consumption of different food
groups consumed by a household during the
7 days before the survey
Composite score based on:
-Dietary diversity
The number of different food or food
groups eaten over a reference time period
-Food frequency and
Days of consumption over a reference
period that a specific food or food graoup
is eaten at the household level
-Relative nutritional importance
of different food groups
Food items that have similar caloric and
nutrient content
Calculation of the food consumption
score: five-step approach
I. Using the vulnerability analysis and mapping (VAM) 7-days food
frequency data group all the food items into specific food groups.
Example of food consumption data collection
II. Summ all the consumption frequencies of food items of the
same group, and recode the value of each group above 7 as 7
III. Multiply the value obtained for each food group by its
weight and create the new weighted food group scores
PER Protein Efficiency Ratio, a measure of protein quality of food proteins
IV. Summ the weighted food group scores, thus creating
the food consumption score
FSC = 2 * x staple + 3 * x pulses + 1* xvegetable +
+ 1* x fruit + 4 * xmeat& fish + 4 * xmilk + 0.5 * x sugar +
+ 0.5 * xoil
X = frequency
V. Using the appropriate thresholds, recode the variable
food consumption scor, from a continuous to a categorical
variable
The value 21 comes from an expected daily consumption of
staple (frequency * weight, 7 * 2 = 14) and vegetables (7 * 1
= 7).
V. Using the appropriate thresholds, recode the variable
food consumption scor, from a continuous to a categorical
variable
The value 35 comes from an expected daily consumption of staple
and vegetables complemented by a frequent (4 day/week)
consumption of oil and pulses (staple*weight + vegetables*weight +
oil*weight +pulses*weight = 7*2+7*1+4*0.5+4*3=35).
V. Using the appropriate thresholds, recode the variable
food consumption scor, from a continuous to a categorical
variable
The value 35 comes from an expected daily consumption of staple
and vegetables complemented by a frequent (4 day/week)
consumption of oil and pulses (staple*weight + vegetables*weight +
oil*weight +pulses*weight = 7*2+7*1+4*0.5+4*3=35).
V. Using the appropriate thresholds, recode the variable
food consumption scor, from a continuous to a categorical
variable
In populations that have high frequency of consumption of sugar
and oil the alternate cut-offs of 28 and 42 may be more appropriate
Household coping capacity
Income status
indicator
From full income measure
of household poverty , if
available of from food
expenditure share
Summary of
coping capacity
Based on the simple
average of income status
and asset depletion
indicators
Assets deplation
indicator
Based on livelihood coping
strategies
Food expenditure groups (home produced
food to be included)
Food expenditure share
group
Share of food expenditure in
total expenditure
Low vulnerability
< 50%
Medium vulnerability
50-65%
High vulnerability
65-75%
Very high vulnerability
>75%
Livelihood coping strategies to be used
in the asset deplation indicator
Coping strategy
Category rank
Food secure (no
coping strategy)
1
Stress
2
Crisis
3
Emergency
4
Stress
Strategy
Rational/discussion
Sold household assets/goods
(radio, furniture, television,
jewelry, etc.)
Selling off household assets is equivalent to spending
down savings – a sign of stress, or marginal food security.
Spent savings
Incurring more debt to meet food needs or spending down
savings are signs of stress, or marginal food security.
Sold more animals (nonproductive) than usual
Items indicating reduced ability to deal with future shocks
due to current reduction in resources or increase in debts
Sent household members to eat Incurring more debt to meet food needs or spending down
elsewhere
savings are signs of stress, or marginal food security.
Borrowed food or relied on
help from friends or relatives
Eating at other people’s households is a strategy that will
incur debt. In most places there will be an expectation of
repayment in some form (e.g. a meal at a later time).
Purchased food on credit or
borrowed food
Incurring more debt to meet food needs or spending down
savings are signs of stress, or marginal food security.
Borrowed money
Move children to less
expensive school
Used in Malawi, Gambia and other countries as a sign of
stress.
Crisis
Strategy
Rational/discussion
Sold productive assets or means
of transport (sewing machine,
wheelbarrow, bicycle, car, etc.)
Selling off productive assets is a crisis strategy, or
moderate food insecurity.
Withdrew children from school
This decreases human capital, a productive asset, so is
considered a crisis strategy, or moderate food insecurity.
Reduced expenses on health
(including drugs) and education
This decreases human capital, a productive asset, so is
considered a crisis strategy, or moderate food insecurity.
Harvested immature crops (e.g.
Green maize)
Consumed seed stocks that were
to be saved for the next season
This action decreases productive assets, affecting next
year’s harvest, which is a crisis strategy.
Decreased expenditures on
fertilizer, pesticide, fodder,
animal feed, veterinary care, etc.
Items that directly reduce future productivity, including
human capital formation
Emergency
Strategy
Rational/discussion
Sold house or land
Items that affect future productivity and are more
difficult to reverse, or more dramatic in nature
Begged
Items that affect future productivity and are more
difficult to reverse, or more dramatic in nature, includes
loss of human dignity
Engaged in illegal income
activities (theft, prostitution)
Sold last female animals
Specific to livestock producers; Items that affect future
productivity, and are more difficult to reverse
Entire household migrated
Items that affect future productivity, but are more
difficult to reverse, or more dramatic in nature
Example of questions for livelihood
strategy assessment
Child food insecurity (1/3)
1. Height-for-age index
Indicator of linear growth retardation and cumulative growth deficits.
• Children whose height-for-age Z-score is below minus two standard
deviations (-2 SD) are considered short for their age, or stunted, and are
chronically malnourished.
• Children who are below minus three standard deviations (-3 SD) are
considered severely stunted
Stunting reflects failure to receive adequate nutrition over a long period and
is also affected by recurrent and chronic illness. Height-for-age represents
the long-term effects of malnutrition in a population and is not sensitive to
recent, short-term changes in dietary intake.
Child food insecurity (2/3)
2. Weight-for-height index
Describes current nutritional status.
- Children whose Z-scores are below minus two standard deviations
(-2 SD) are considered thin, or wasted, and are acutely malnourished.
- Children whose weight-for-height is below minus three standard
deviations (-3 SD) are considered severely wasted.
Wasting may result from inadequate food intake or a recent episode of
illness causing loss of weight and the onset of malnutrition.
Child food insecurity (3/3)
3. Weight-for-age index
Composite index of height-for-age and weight-for-height. It takes into
account both acute and chronic malnutrition.
- Children whose weight-for-age is below minus two standard
deviations (-2 SD) from the median of the reference population are
classified as underweight.
- Children whose weight-for-age is below minus three standard
deviations (-3 SD) from the median of the reference population are
considered severely underweight.