Measurement of Food Insecurity in Selected Districts of Kabul City

Abstract

Food Insecurity has significantly increased in both developed and developing countries, causing suffering for people due to lack of food. Food Insecurity has been mostly observed during major crises, such as the global economic crisis in 2008 and the Covid-19 outbreak in 2019. Despite fundamental efforts in fighting poverty, Afghanistan continues to struggle with food insecurity with a large proportion of its population living below the poverty line. Four districts of Kabul city were measured for Food Insecurity in which people were unable to obtain the necessary calories within 24 hours. At the present time, the social problem of Food Insecurity in Afghanistan is becoming more serious as people’s lives depend on humanitarian aid and donations. The Foster Greer Thorbecke method of measuring Food Insecurity was utilized in this paper to measure Food Insecurity in four selected districts of Kabul city. Household opinions have been collected via questionnaires and in-person interviewing. The results of this research show that District 13 has the highest level of Food Insecurity, with 70% of residents unable to have sufficient food. Subsequently, district 1 has 65% of people unable to have sufficient calories, district 16 has 62 %and district 8 has 61 %. This paper aims to highlight the efforts of Afghanistan in alleviating food insecurity with a focus on the impact of COVID-19, unfair government policies, bad security, weak infrastructure, low literacy level, medical services shortage, high unemployment rate and lack of modern technology that hinder Afghanistan from accessing enough food. We conclude that Afghanistan would need to develop update policies to mitigate food insecurity.