by Yadav Sharma Bajagai
"Food Security" is one
of major elements of development and poverty alleviation and has been the goal
of many international and national public organizations. The issue is so
important that according to the state of food insecurity in the world 2012
published by FAO around 870 million people (out of which 852 million from
developing countries) are estimated to have been undernourished in the period
2010-12. Although the phrase "Food Security" is being used widely,
the definition and concept of food security is elusive and being evolved and
expanded over time.
Definition of Food Security
Defining food security precisely
is very difficult. There are more than 200 definitions and 450 indicators of
food security. Following are some popular definitions of food security:
1996 World Food Summit: "Food
security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic
access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs
and food preferences for an active and healthy life."
World Health
Organization (WHO): "Food security means that:
- all people at all times have both physical and economic access to enough food for an active, healthy life;
- the ways in which food is produced and distributed are respectful of the natural processes of the earth and thus sustainable;
- both the consumption and production of food are governed by social values that are just and equitable as well as moral and ethical;
- the ability to acquire food is ensured;
- the food itself is nutritionally adequate and personally and culturally acceptable; and
- the food is obtained in a manner that upholds human dignity."
Similarly
Community Food Security has been defined as follows:
"Community
food security exists when all citizens obtain a safe, personally acceptable,
nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy
choices, community self reliance and equal access for everyone." - Public
Health Association of British Columbia (PHABC)
From these definitions, achieving
food security seems utopian (at least ideal) and no country could hope to reach
in reality. Therefore, for specific program/project or particular nation
definition of food security should be something achievable or measurable at
least for certain duration. But, these definitions should cover the basics. No
mater how we define food security, having enough to eat regularly for active
and healthy life is the most essential human need. Many developing countries,
especially in South Asia and Africa, haven't been able to fulfil this vital
need even today.
Household Food Security
A household is food secure when it has access to the food
needed for a healthy life for all its members (adequate in terms of quality,
quantity, and safety and culturally acceptable) and when it is not at undue
risk of losing such access.
Food
security at global or national level may not usually address the household
level food security problem. The relationship between national food security
and household food security is less prominent in developing countries than in
developed ones. Therefore, specific policies are required to address household
level food insecurity and these policies should be contextual and
problem-specific.
Characteristics of household with very low food security
- Members of household (mainly adult) worried that their food would run out before they got money to buy more.
- Food they bought just didn't last and they didn't have money to get more.
- They couldn't afford to eat balanced meals have to rely on inexpensive non-nutritious food.
- An adult had to cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money for food.
- They had to eaten less than they felt they should because there was not enough money for food.
- They had been hungry but did not eat because they could not afford enough food.
- They had to acquire food through socially unacceptable means such as charitable assistance, buying food on credit etc.
Intra-household food dynamics and
consequences during food insecurity are depicted in figure 1.
Adapted from Hamelin et. al. (1999)
Types of Food Insecurity
Chronic Food Insecurity
Lack of minimum
requirement of food to the people for a sustained period of time due to extended periods of poverty, lack of
assets and inadequate access to productive or financial resources can be called
as Chronic Food Insecurity.
Acute or Transitory Food Insecurity
Sudden lack of food or
reduction in the ability to produce or access minimum requirement of food due
to short-term shocks and
fluctuations in food availability and food access, including year-to-year
variations in domestic food production, food prices and household incomes can
be defied as Acute or Transitory Food Insecurity.
Dimensions of Food Security
Food
security is the outcome of food system operating efficiently. Efficient food
system contributes positively to all dimensions of food security. Following are
the dimensions of food security (figure 2):
Food availability
This
dimension addresses supply side of the food security and expects sufficient quantities of quality food from domestic agriculture production or
import. This is simple mathematical calculation weather the food available in
certain territory/country is enough to feed the total population in that
particular territory and calculated from the level of local agriculture
production at that territory, stock levels and net import/export.
This
dimension of food security at different levels can be assessed by precipitation
record, food balance sheet, food market survey, agricultural production planet.
Similarly, indicators of food security for this dimension at different levels
are fertility rate, food production, population flows, harvesting time, staple
food production, food storage, consumption of wild foods etc.
Food access
Having
sufficient food at national level or at certain territory cannot be taken as
the proof that all the household or individuals in the country/territory have
enough food to eat. Food access is another dimension of food security which encompasses
income, expenditure and buying capacity of households or individuals. Food
access addresses whether the households or individuals have enough resources to
acquire appropriate quantity of quality foods.
Some of
the indicators of this dimension at different levels are food price, wage rate,
per capita food consumption, meal frequency, employment rate etc. and the
dimension can be assessed by Vulnerability Analysis and mapping (VAM), Food
Access Survey, Food Focus Group Discussion, Intra- household food frequency
questionnaire etc. Interventions to improve this dimension of food security are
inter alia on-farm, off-farm and non-farm employment creation, school-feeding
program, breast –feeding campaign etc.
Food utilization
Food
utilization is another dimension of food security which addresses not only how
much food the people eat but also what and how they eat. It also covers the
food preparation, intra-household food distribution, water and sanitation and health
care practices. The nutritional outcome of the food eaten by an individual will
be appropriate and optimum only when food is prepared/cooked properly, there is
adequate diversity of the diet and proper feeding and caring practices are
practiced.
Stunting
rate, wasting rate, prevention of diarrhoeal diseases, latrine usage,
weight-for-age, goitre, anaemia, night blindness etc are the indicators at
different level for this dimensions which can be assessed by demographic and
health survey, immunization chart etc.
Stability
This
dimension addresses the stability of the other three dimensions over time. People cannot be considered food secure until
they feel so and they do not feel food secure until there is stability of
availability, accessibility and proper utilization condition. Instability of
market price of staple food and inadequate risk baring capacity of the people
in the case of adverse condition (e.g. natural disaster, unexpected weather
etc), political instability and unemployment are the major factors affecting
stability of the dimensions of food security.
This
dimension of food security can be assessed by Global Information Early Warning
System, Anthropometric survey, weighing chart of pregnant women etc against
certain indicators like food price fluctuation, women etc. against certain
indicators like food price fluctuation, women's BMI, pre-harvest food practice,
migration etc. Interventions to address this dimension are saving and loan
policy, inter-household food exchange, grain bank, food storage etc.
In
summary, Availability covers whether adequate food is ready at people's
disposal while Access ensures if all households and individuals have adequate
resources to obtain the food they need either through production or purchase. Similarly
utilization is about human body function to adequately ingest, digest and
metabolize the food. Stability is about assurance of continuation of
fore-mentioned dimensions.
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)
The integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is
a tool to classify severity of food insecurity based on a range of livelihood
needs. This is a standardized framework for situation analysis expressed in a
scale that integrates food security, nutrition and livelihood related
information into a clear statement of food security status.
Objectives of IPC
- Provide technical consensus and a common language for classifying severity and causes of food insecurity situations.
- Promote transparency about food security situation through evidence based analysis.
- Communicate about the food security situation to decision makers
- Provide basis for current and early warning projections.
There are 4 components of
the IPC: (1) Reference Table (2) Analysis Template (3) Cartographic Protocols
(4) Population Table.
This system classify food
security/insecurity into 5 different phases (figure 3) by analysing crude
mortality rate, acute malnutrition, disease, food access/availability, dietary
diversity, water access/availability, destitution and displacement, civil security,
coping and livelihood assets.
Figure 3: Phases of Food Security according to IPC Phase Classification
