Household food insecurity and hunger among households in Sidama district, southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Objective: To examine household food insecurity and hunger in Sidama Zone, one of the most populous zones in southern Ethiopia. Design: Cross-sectional survey administered individually by trained interviewers. Food insecurity was calculated with both the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and the Household Hunger Scale (HHS), developed by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project. Setting: Rural households from ten kebeles (the smallest administrative district) selected from two agro-climatic zones in Sidama, southern Ethiopia, from December 2010 to January 2011. Subjects: Men and women respondents from 1094 rural households were selected using multistage sampling techniques. Results: Using the HFIAS, 17?7 % of households were food secure. The percentage of households that were mildly, moderately and severely food insecure was 6?8 %, 27?7 % and 47?8 %, respectively. Using the HHS, 29?0 % and 5?6 % of households fell into the moderate and severe household hunger categories. Using multivariate statistical techniques, five variables were significant predictors of both food insecurity and hunger. These variables were migration of a household member, agro-climatic zone, and younger age, less education and lower radio access for the woman. Being eligible for safety-net credit programmes also was a predictor of hunger, while limited animal ownership and household wealth as well as alcohol use by the household head added to the prediction of food insecurity. Conclusions: The study documented that food insecurity is a major concern of smallholder farming households in the study area. A substantial majority of the households were facing mild to severe food insecurity and hunger for an extended period of time.

Food security experiences of displaced North Korean households

“…However, when aggregated according to year, HFIAS scores were much higher during the mid to late 1990s (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) compared to the 2000s (0-2) (data not shown), which coincides with previous reports that the food situation was worse in the 1990s [1,[29][30][31]. The food security level immediately before leaving North Korea was worse than that in Tanzania (48.1% of households severely food insecure) [22] or Ethiopia (47.8% of households severely food insecure) [23] determined by HFIAS.…”

“…This study examined household food security using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) [19]. HFIAS is thought to be a well-developed scale to determine food security at the household level in food insecure environments [19,20] and has been applied in various countries [21][22][23][24]; therefore it was suitable for this study. Since HFIAS was originally developed in English, the questions were translated first to Korean and then back into English; differences between the original and back-translated version were minimized.…”

“…These surveys examined anthropometric measurement, anemia, and food consumption of the women. The malnutrition rate of women, as determined by measurement of mid-upper arm circumference (< 22.5 cm), decreased from 32% in 2002 to 23.2% in 2012, whereas the anemia rate also decreased from 34.7% in 1998 to 31.2% in 2012 [4]. Although the malnutrition situation among young North Korean women has apparently slightly improved, it is still dire compared to the situation in South Korea [12].…”

Assessing the cross-sectional and inter-temporal validity of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) in Burundi

“…One can ask whether, in a crosssectional survey, it is able to effectively discriminate between food-secure and food-insecure households. Previous studies (3,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) showed that the HFIAS is correlated with objective food intake-based measures of food security and is thus cross-sectionally valid. In a longitudinal survey that follows the same households over time, the main concern is the inter-temporal validity of the index.…”

Untitled

“…The aspect of household food security has received increased attention particularly due to deteriorating economic conditions worldwide (Regassa and Stoecker, 2011). Food security is understood to exist when all people have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food (at all times), to meet their dietary smallholder households in three different districts of the Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe.…”