Household Food Security: An Assessment Method

Abstract

This paper describes a method for assessing household food insecurity. The method determines the level of current food insecurity experienced by individual households, whether they are at risk of food insecurity in the short term and whether they are likely to experience improving or worsening food insecurity in the long term. The method, which is based on the households' own description of their conditions, uses a household questionnaire and a quasi-expert system. The quasi-expert system greatly increases the speed of assessment because the questionnaire and the analysis are developed simultaneously. To date, the method has been used to survey and describe household food security in six developing countries. The method and the results of these applications are discussed in this paper. SOMMAIRE La mkthode d'kvaluation dkcrite ici permet de dtterminer le niveau d'incertitudealimentaire d'un mknage donnk. Elle utilise un questionnaire destink au mknage et un systkme d'analyse quasi expert. Les systkmes experts sont des programmes informatiques interactifs qui simulent le dialogue question-rkponse qui pourrait s'ktablir si l'on demandait l'avis d'un expert sur un problkme et sa solution kventuelle. En l'occurrence, le systkme est dit quasi expert parce qu'il n'est pas interactif: Le programme utilise plutdt l'information contenue dans les rkponses au questionnaire pour arriver d des conclusions concernant l'ktat de la skuritk alimentaire de chacun des mknages rkpondants. La rnkthode d'analyse se fonde sur la description que le mknage fait de sa situation et comporte une variable temporelle. Elle dktermine le niveau d'inskcuritk alimentaire actuel du mknage, que celui-ci risque de manquer de nourriture dans un avenir immkdiat* We gratefully acknowledge the work and dedication of many individuals who have contributed over the years to developing this assessment method. We also gratefully acknowledge numerous institutions for their support and financing of the projects described in this paper: the University of Guelph; CIDA; the Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture in Los Bafios, Philippines and its cooperating institutions -the Lao Council of Medical Sciences; IDRC in Singapore; World Vision Canada; and World Vision Mozambique. ou bien de voir sa situation alimentaire s'arnkliorer ou se dttkriorer b plus long terme. Cette mkthode acctlkre knormtment l'tvaluation, puisque le questionnaire et l'analyse se formulent simultantment. A ce jour, la mkthode a servi b recenser et b dkcrire l'incertitude alimentaire de mknages particuliers dans six pays : l'lndonbie, la Malaisie, les Philippines, la Thai'lande, le Laos et le Mozambique. L'article examine les rkgles dkcision-

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“…A survey of publications on development policy reveals an overarching concern with such issues as 'household ecology' (Wilk and Tannenbaum, 2001), the 'household economy (or economics)' (Goheen, 1988;Low, 1989), 'household decision making' (Haller, 2000;Kalinda et al, 2000), 'household income diversification' (Reardon, 1997), 'household food insecurity' (Ali and Pitkin, 1991;Immink and Alarcon, 1991;Kennedy and Peters, 1992;Akinyele, 1997;Nyariki and Wiggins, 1997;Phillips and Taylor, 1998;Sutherland et al, 1998;Washington and Downing, 1999) and the comparatively rare 'household livelihood strategies' (Barrett et al, 2001). In all cases, these studies treat the household as the meaningful institution through which those living in development contexts construct means of coping with the uncertainty and instability in their lives.…”

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