Food Security Information for Action

Food Security Concepts and Frameworks

Lesson 1

What is Food Security?

Learner’s Notes

This course is funded by the European Union and developed

by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United

© FAO, 2008
 Course - Food Security Concepts and Frameworks
Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Table of Contents

Learning objectives .............................................................................................1

Introduction ........................................................................................................2

Definition of Food Security...................................................................................3

Duration and severity of food insecurity.................................................................7

Summary ......................................................................................................... 11

If you want to know more................................................................................... 12

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 Course - Food Security Concepts and Frameworks
Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Learning objectives

At the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• define food security as a broad concept used to determine people’s general well-being;

• understand four key dimensions used to analyze people’s food security status; and

• appreciate how the duration and severity of people’s food insecurity status may vary.

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Introduction
This course is about how decision making in the formulation and implementation of food
security policies, strategies and action can be strengthened based on relevant information
about people’s food security status. The overall theme is about linking food security
information to action.

As a starting point, we will clarify and define the concept of food security.

We will then examine what is unique about a food security approach to decision-making
and achieving development objectives.

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Definition of Food Security

How would you define food security?

You may already be an experienced professional with knowledge of what food security is.
However, depending on your professional background and the context that you work in,
your opinion on action needed to achieve food security will most likely differ.

This is because, while food security is a multi-dimensional concept, we usually specialize

in addressing one aspect of the larger food security problem.

Agricultural production, trade, income, food quality, clean water, sanitation, governance
and political stability are all factors influencing one’s food security status.

It is useful to step back from our own personal experience and examine the multi-
dimensional nature of the food security concept.

The concept of food security has evolved significantly over time. The definition of food
security used in this course is the one adopted at the 1996 World Food Summit held in
Rome.

This definition, which has been formally endorsed at the global level, reads as follows:

FOOD SECURITY
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.

This definition introduces four main dimensions of food security:

• Physical AVAILABILITY of food;
• Economic and physical ACCESS to food;
• Food UTILIZATION;
• STABILITY of the other three dimensions over time.

Let’s look at the meaning of each of these terms.

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

One way to understand these four dimensions of the broad food security concept is to
examine how the meaning and common understanding of food security has evolved over
time.

In modern times the interest in “food security” was reignited following the world food crisis
of 1972-74. The crisis originated from a combination of factors, including adverse
conditions in several parts of the world, which reduced global grain supplies.
Subsequently, a dramatic increase in demand for grain imports doubled international grain
prices, which threatened the food security status of food importing nations.

As a result, the first World Food Conference held in 1974 focused on the problem of global
production, trade and stocks. Hence, the original food security debate focused on
adequate supply of food and ensuring stability of these supplies through food reserves.

Subsequent food security efforts focused primarily on food production and storage
mechanisms to offset fluctuations in global supply and ensure the ability to import food
when needed.

Food availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the
level of food production, stock levels and net trade.

However, it became obvious that an adequate supply of food at the national or

international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security.

For example, the Green Revolution in Asia of the 1960s and 1970s, with its package of
improved seeds, farm technology, better irrigation and chemical fertilizers, was highly
successful at augmenting food supplies, but this was not automatically translated into
improvements in food security of all people.

This insight highlighted the problem of a lack of effective demand.

From the early 1980’s, the importance of food access was increasingly recognized as a
key determinant of food security.

Hence, food production is just one of several means that people have to acquire the food
that they need.

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Other means to access food

Food can be accessed through trade, barter, collection of wild foods and community
support networks; it can also be received as a gift (or even through theft).
Remember that access to food is influenced by market factors and the price of food as
well as an individual’s purchasing power, which is related to employment and livelihood
opportunities.

Concerns about insufficient food access have resulted in a greater policy focus on
incomes and expenditure in achieving food security objectives.
This has brought food security closer to the poverty reduction agenda.

A third dimension – food utilization – has become increasingly prominent in food security
discussions since the 1990s. Utilization is commonly understood as the way the body
makes the most of various nutrients in the food. This food security dimension is
determined primarily by people’s health status.

General hygiene and sanitation, water quality, health care practices and food safety and
quality are determinants of good food utilization by the body.
Sufficient energy and nutrient intake by individuals is the result of good care and feeding
practices, food preparation, diversity of the diet and intra-household distribution of food.
Combined with good biological utilization of food consumed, this determines the nutritional
status of individuals.

Food security was traditionally perceived as consuming sufficient protein and energy (food
quantity). The importance of micro-nutrients for a balanced and nutritious diet (food
quality) is now well appreciated.

The phrase “All people, at all times” is integral to the definition of food security, and is key
to achieving national food security objectives.

All people
Different people are food secure to varying degrees and will be affected by adverse events
differently. We must assess variations in food security status between different groups of
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people. Most commonly, humanitarian and development agencies differentiate between

groups according to their main livelihood (source of food or income), in addition to other
factors such as geographical location and wealth.

All times
This recognizes that people’s food security situation may change. Even if your food intake
is adequate today, you are still considered to be food insecure if you have inadequate
access to food on a periodic basis, risking a deterioration of your nutritional status.
Adverse weather conditions (drought, floods), political instability (social unrest), or
economic factors (unemployment, rising food prices) may impact on your food security
status.

The phrase “at all times” refers to the stability dimension of food security. It emphasizes
the importance of having to reduce the risk of adverse effects on the other three
dimensions: food availability, access to food or food utilization.

The realization of the importance of each dimension has added value to our earlier
understanding. For food security objectives to be realized, all four dimensions must be
fulfilled simultaneously.

For example, while there has been a growing realization of the importance of the food
access dimension, it has not displaced earlier concerns about adequate food availability.
Even if people have money, if there is no food available in the market, people are at risk of
food insecurity.

Similarly, the importance of food utilization has further enriched our understanding. Food
security is not just about quantity of food consumed, but also about quality, and that your
body must be healthy to enable the nutrients to be absorbed.

Finally, these three dimensions should be stable over time and not be affected negatively
by natural, social, economic or political factors.

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Duration and severity of food insecurity

Let us now look at aspects of the nature of food insecurity.
There are important differences in how the duration and severity of food insecurity impact
on people’s lives.

Understanding these variations is important since various factors influence the choice of
intervention to address food insecurity concerns.

A specific vocabulary has been developed to describe the duration of food insecurity and
the severity of the level of food insecurity.

Duration

Not all households or people suffer inadequate food consumption for the same period of
time. This may vary from a short-term experience to a life long condition.

However, food security analysts have found it helpful to define two general types of food
insecurity:

1. Chronic food insecurity

2. Transitory food insecurity

In addition to the observable differences in duration, chronic and transitory food insecurity
are also distinguished by the different causes.
The distinction between different causes is useful, as the two forms of food insecurity
demand different response measures.

Table 1: Characteristics of Chronic and Transitory food insecurity

Chronic food insecurity Transitory food insecurity
Description It is taken as long-term or It is short-term and temporary.
persistent. It occurs when people It refers to a sudden drop in the ability
are unable to meet their minimum to produce or access enough food to
food requirements over a maintain a good nutritional status.
sustained period of time.

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Causes It is often the result of extended It is primarily caused by short-term

periods of poverty, lack of assets shocks and fluctuations in food
and inadequate access to availability and food access, including
productive or financial resources. year-to-year variations in domestic
food production, food prices and
household incomes.
Response It can be overcome with typical It is relatively unpredictable and can
measure long term development measures emerge suddenly.
also used to address poverty, such This unpredictability makes planning
as education or access to and programming more difficult and
productive resources, such as requires different capacities and types
credit. On the other hand, of intervention, including early
chronically food insecure people warning capacity and safety net
may need more direct access to programmes.
food to enable them to raise their
productive capacity.

An intermediate type of food insecurity is seasonal food insecurity.

Seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is a cyclical pattern of inadequate availability
and access to food. This is associated with seasonal fluctuations in the climate, cropping
patterns, work opportunities (labour demand) and/or prevalence of diseases.

For example, food shortages may occur in the pre-harvest period, when on-farm stocks
are depleted and other sources of food (e.g. wild foods) are not available. In rural
communities it is common to talk of “hungry periods” and “periods of plenty” related to the
agricultural calendar and/or cyclical availability of employment.

The concept of seasonal food security falls between chronic and transitory food insecurity.
It is similar to chronic food insecurity as it is usually predictable and follows a sequence of
known events.

However, as seasonal food insecurity is of limited duration it can also be seen as a

recurrent, transitory food insecurity.

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Recognizing the appropriate duration of food insecurity has policy and programme
implications. Also, to adequately assess food security, where seasonality is an important
factor, it may be necessary to compare food security indicators not only against annual
averages, but with reference to a baseline for the same season (or month) in previous
years.

Severity

When analyzing food insecurity, it is not enough to know the duration of the problem that
people are experiencing, but also how intense or severe the impact of the identified
problem is on the overall food security and nutrition status.
This knowledge will influence the nature, extent and urgency of the assistance needed by
affected population groups.

Food security analysts/professionals may use the term acute food insecurity to describe a
severe and life threatening situation.
The most extreme situations, usually associated with substantial loss of life will warrant the
description of famine.

Different ‘scales’ or ‘phases’ to ‘grade’ or ‘classify’ food security have been developed by
food security analysts using different indicators and cut-off points or ‘benchmarks’.
Let’s look at a few examples. At this point, we are not interested in the precise thresholds,
but rather in the classes and the general indicators used.

Example 1

The intensity of food insecurity may be measured in terms of levels of food intake.
One option is to relate the severity of food insecurity to how consumption falls below a
threshold of 2,100 kcal per day:

Food security status Indicators

Food secure
Mild food insecurity Energy intake (measured in calories)
Moderate food insecurity
Severe food insecurity

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

The measure for hunger compiled by FAO, defined as undernourishment, refers to the
proportion of the population whose dietary energy consumption is less than a pre-
determined threshold.
People suffering from undernourishment are referred to as the undernourished.
Besides being a measure of hunger, the undernourished are also referred to as suffering
from food deprivation.

Example 2

Another example is the Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase Classification
Framework.
This provides a classification system for food security and humanitarian crises based on a
range of livelihood needs:

Phase classification Indicators

Generally food secure • Crude Mortality Rate
Chronically food insecure • Malnutrition prevalence
• Food Access/ Availability
Acute food and livelihood crisis • Dietary Diversity
Humanitarian emergency • Water Access/Availability
• Coping strategies
Famine / humanitarian catastrophe • Livelihood Assets

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Lesson 1 - What is Food Security?

Summary
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.

From this definition four main dimensions of food security can be identified:

• physical availability of food

• economic and physical access to food
• adequate food utilization
• stability of the other three dimensions over time

There are also important differences in the duration and severity of the way in which
people experience food insecurity.

Understanding the various dimensions of food security is important when establishing

priorities in food security policy and programme formulation, making long term investment
decisions, and in evaluating response options when responding to food emergencies.

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If you want to know more

Online resources
• FAO (1996) World Food Summit: Rome Declaration and Plan of Action. October
1996. www.fao.org/wfs
• FAO (2006) Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase Classification (IPC)
Framework, ESA Policy Brief, 06-01. ftp://ftp.fao.org/es/ESA/policybriefs/pb_01.pdf
• WFP (2005) Emergency Food Security Assessment Handbook.
www.wfp.org/operations/emergency_needs/EFSA_section1.pdf

Additional reading
• Sen, A.K. (1981) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlements and Deprivation.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Stamoulis K., Zezza A. (2003). A Conceptual Framework for National Agricultural,
Rural Development, and Food Security Strategies and Policies, Working Paper 03-
17, ESA Division, FAO.
• Devereux, S. (2006) Distinguishing between chronic and transitory food insecurity in
emergency needs assessments. SENAC, WFP, Rome.

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