Food security and nutrition indicators for impact assessment. Marie Claude Dop & Terri Ballard Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, FAO

Transcription

1 Food security and nutrition indicators for impact assessment Marie Claude Dop & Terri Ballard Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division, FAO Workshop Measuring the impacts of food security related programming FAO, Rome, December 2010

2 OUTLINE Definitions and purpose: what do we want to measure? Characteristics of a good indicator The framework for choosing food security and nutrition indicators Types of indicators Dietary diversity and food insecurity scales as indicators applicable to a broad range of programmes

3 DEFINITION OF FOOD SECURITY Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

4 WHAT IS IMPACT ASSESSMENT? Interventions The purpose of impact assessment in our case is to assess changes in the food and nutrition security situation that can be attributed in part or wholly to a project or programme. Source : Impact assessment of Large Scale Food Security Programmes. E learning course, FAO 2010.

5 IMPACT ASSESSMENT: WHAT CHANGES ARE ASSESSED? Projects and programmes apply a given set of resources to a given problem in order to produce: outputs Greater agricultural production, better agricultural techniques, nutrition education to diversify diets short term and medium term outcomes long term outcomes and impacts Increased agricultural diversity, improved knowledge on reasons to diversify diets. Improved diets and nutritional status Impact assessment focuses primarily on assessing changes at the outcome level and at the impact level.

6 KEY IMPACT QUESTIONS What has changed since the programme began? How much change has occurred since the programme began? Who experienced the change most and least? How and why did the change occur or not? How much of the change can be attributed to the programme itself rather than to external factors (to know if our programme or project contributed to the observed effect or was there some other reason)?

7 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD INDICATOR The following are the characteristics of a good indicator (S.M.A.R.T). A good indicator should be... Specific (and valid): measures what it is intended to measure. Measurable: must allow for regular data collection and update throughout the entire life of the project. Achievable: must be technically possible to obtain data at a reasonable cost. Reliable: must produce the same results when used more than once to measure precisely the same phenomenon. Timely (and sensitive to change): it should be possible to collect and analyze data "reasonably quickly".

8 CHOOSING INDICATORS UNICEF conceptual framework for malnutrition (1990)

9 Anthropometry Individual Dietary Diversity Household Dietary Diversity Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS)

10 TYPES OF FOOD SECURITY & NUTRITION INDICATORS Indicators that are very specific of the intervention: E.g. intervention on a particular value chain or a food of nutritional interest: Orange flesh sweet potato projects (OFSP): frequency of consumption of OFSP will be assessed Indicators are needed to measure improvement in food security status of the participant households as a result of the intervention: E.g. use a food insecurity scale Indicators are needed to measure improvement in the overall nutritional quality of the diet: E.g. use of an indicator of dietary diversity

11 Dietary diversity as an impact indicator Dietary diversity is an easy to measure proxy of: access to food energy availability intake of micronutrients Evidence base: Many validation studies: at household level at individual level in infants and young children, women, etc

12 Dietary diversity: How is it measured? Qualitative recall of dietary intake (very quick) Level of measurement Household (measure of access to food) Individual (nutritional quality of the diet) Standard food groups Reference period: 1 day is the most commonly used The dietary diversity score (DDS) is a simple count of the food groups eaten

13 Dietary diversity: strengths and limitations Quick and easy to measure and analyze Does not necessitate high skills Cost very low Timely: sensitive to change Allows measuring trends No cut point for defining low dietary diversity in most age groups Limited range of scores for the Women s DDS

14 Household Food Security Scales in Impact Assessment The tools constitute a direct measure of food access at the household level Households go through different experiential and behavioral stages as food insecurity becomes more severe Research over the past two decades has identified a particular set of conditions, experiences and behavior patterns that consistently characterizes the phenomenon of food insecurity and hunger

15 Household Food Security Scales Household food security scales cover one or more of three main themes: 1) experiencing anxiety and uncertainty about the household food supply; 2) altering quality of the diet; 3) reducing quantity of food consumed. A set of questions that describe behaviors in situations of increasing food insecurity (with or w/out frequency of occurrence). A score is calculated that indicates the level of food insecurity

16 Examples of validated scales in use to evaluate food security and nutrition policies and programmes US Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) Latin American Food Security Scales (ELCSA and national variants) Household Hunger Scale (HHS) New. Validated from the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale HFIAS

17 Example of using a food security scale to evaluate public policy: Brazil s Fome Zero National surveys using the Brazilian Household Food Security Scale showed a 25% reduction in the number of food insecure persons between 2004 and 2009 The reduction occurred mainly in low income households with children Policy makers concluded that the major factor contributing to this reduction was participation in the Bolsa Família programme, followed by increase in the minimum salary 27/11/2010

18 Household food insecurity scales: strengths and limitations Provide a direct estimate of % of food insecure households Cost low Timely: sensitive to change Risk of response bias in some cases where there is high expectation of assistance

19 Example: Food insecurity and Dietary diversity in urban Tanzania by wealth class Mean HFIAS and HDDS by wealth status 12 HFIAS 8 10 Mean HFIAS HDDS 7 6 Mean HDDS 2 0 Worse-off Medium Best-off 5

20 Food insecurity scales and Dietary diversity are complementary indicators for impact assessment Food insecurity scales measure access to food While dietary diversity at individual level is a measure of overall nutritional quality of the diet Food insecurity scales provide an estimate of % of households affected Adding dietary diversity shows whether improvements in access to food also lead to more nutritious diets These standard indicators are relevant to evaluate a broad range of food security and nutrition programmes