CHAPTER THREE

FOOD SECURITY AND

NUTRITION
 3.1.Concept of Poverty and Hunger

Meaning of poverty
 Poverty is the deprivation of food, shelter, money and
clothing when people can’t satisfy their basic needs.
 It can be understand in many senses, which includes:-

 Described as deficiency of material needs (a minimum

standard of life) including necessities of daily living foods,
shelter, clothing, health etc.
 Can be understood as lack of essentials for a minimum
standard of life.
 Cont.
 The conditions of poverty are linked with a question of
resource scarcity, distribution, and power.
 It always means lack of access to material, economic,
social, political or cultural resources needed to satisfy
basic needs.
 Described as a persistent lack of income and wealth.

 Poverty can be understood simply as a lack of money or

more broadly in terms of barriers to everyday human life.
 3.1.1. Types of poverty
 As poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, it’s
defined and measured in multitude of ways.
 The UN, perhaps the most prominent international
institution dealing with hunger and poverty, divides
poverty into two general classifications: income poverty
and human poverty.

A. Income Poverty
 Income poverty is an understanding of poverty that is
solely based on levels of monetary income.
• Worldwide, approximately 1 billion people live on less than US$1 a day
and about 2.6 billion live on less than US$2 a day.
• Income poverty is also used to determine a poverty line (threshold)
• This is the boundary between poverty and non-poverty as determined by
governments.
• It is based on the cost of subsistence needs in a given country so, while
US$1 a day is the international poverty line, for countries where the cost
of living is higher, the poverty line is higher.
• In the United States, for example, the poverty line is at about US$28 a
day (UN, 2008).
 B. Human Poverty
 Income poverty is based on only one indicator, whereas human
poverty encompasses the multiplicity of dimensions associated
with poverty.
• It includes deprivation on a material level, e.g. lack of proper diet,
clothing, shelter, and work.
• It also includes social deprivation, such as denial of employment,
participation in social institutions, and education.
 The UN’s Economic and Social Council has described human poverty as:

“… a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity.

 It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society.
 It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a
school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food
or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit.
 It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals,
households and communities.
 It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal
or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation”
 Measurement approaches of poverty

 Poverty is a relative term, a condition that can only be defined by

comparing the circumstances of one group of people or an entire

economy with another one. Based on this Two types of poverty are
identified:- namely relative poverty and absolute poverty.
1. Absolute poverty refers to absolute deprivation of certain basic necessities
of life, the most obvious being food, in order to maintain a minimum level
of living. It states the severe derivation of basic human needs.
• Absolute poverty refers to subsistence below minimum, socially
acceptable living conditions, usually established based on nutritional
requirements and other essential goods. Eg. a daily intake of less than
2150 calories/person/day.
 cont.

2. Relative poverty is refers to compares the lowest segments of a population with

upper segments, usually measured in income.
• key indicators such as the share, in national wealth or income
• When people unable to do the normal customized experiences they are in state
of relative deprivation /poverty.
• e.g. unable to celebrate holidays like; Edialfetir, Charismas or
• If for example in America having a car is a normal custom/experience but if an
individual does not have a car, he/she is found to be in relative poverty (poverty
in relation with the other).
 Hungry; is a desire or a need for food , uneasy feeling weakened condition
resulting from lack of food.
3.1.3.The relationship between hunger and poverty
• Hunger and poverty are powerful but familiar terms
• Even major international organizations mandated to alleviate hunger and poverty
use a variety of interpretations.
• From the most comprehensive perspective, hunger describes the feeling of
discomfort that is the body’s signal that it is in need of more food.
• All people experience this feeling at times but, for most people, particularly in the
developed world, this phenomenon is a fleeting event that is alleviated once the
next meal is taken, causing no deep or permanent damage.
• When hunger or lack of food persists, however, the consequences can be
devastating.
• Hunger can also be viewed as representative of all the tragic and horrific
circumstances that cause it. Poverty causes hunger.
 Cont.

• Not every poor person is hungry, but almost all hungry people are
poor.
• Millions live with hunger and malnourishment because they
simply cannot afford to buy enough food, cannot afford nutritious
foods, or cannot afford the farming supplies they need to grow
enough good food of their own.
• Hunger can be viewed as a dimension of extreme poverty.

• It is often called the most severe and critical manifestation of

poverty.
 3.1.4. Dimensions of poverty

 Socio cultural dimensions:- It can be expressed in terms of lack of self

– confidence, having low self –esteem, dependence proneness and
alienate (isolate/separate from) of people from mainstream of social
development and the like.
 Intellectual dimension of poverty: - can be explained by when people
perceive a sense of worthlessness and believe that they know nothing.
• When the majority is dominated by elites and upper class people.
 Institutional dimensions:- Unorganized or no solidarity among people
for their betterment and well-being
 Economic deprivations:- Economic limitations to satisfy the needs and
wants of the household
 Cont.

 Ecological dimensions:-According to ecologists the cause for poverty are

population pressure on natural resources.
• The ecologists for this type of problem proposed solutions wise utilization of
resources.
 Political economics of poverty: - According to political economists the cause
for poverty is unequal resources, wealth and power distribution or
unfair/injustice resource, wealth, prestige, privilege concentration. i.e. resources
used to satisfy few minorities but disregard majorities.

• Solutions proposed by political economists are redistribution of wealth and

power justice resource and power distribution.

 3.1.5. Causes of rural poverty

 They are many causes of poverty and Some of them are;

 Natural and environmental factors-

 Wide fluctuation of agricultural production as a result of drought

 Underdeveloped transportation, communication network and
production technology;
 The persistence shortage of rainfall or unseasonal rain fall)

 Inadequate nutrition- the childhood in poor nations lead to

mental and physical stunt/limit; diseases that affect poor nations
and the poor people in these countries give a chance to continue
poverty consistently;
 Cont.

 Unemployment, under employment, poor

infrastructure; lack of education, lack of democracy,
lack of well-paying jobs , lack of free trade etc;
 Lack of freedom , lack of social integration; and the
impact of colonization , monarchy/domination of
socialism and communism, lack of participation by
rural people
 3.1.6.Effects of Poverty
Poverty may have enormous effect such as;

 Increase vulnerability to hunger and starvation;

 Rouse different violence (social, political, war, etc);

 Homelessness of household

 Lack of different opportunities and

 Increase discrimination and the like.

 Inequality, Poor education, Climate change, Poor education

 Limited capacity of government

 3.1.6.The Vicious Circle of Poverty
• The vicious circle of poverty implies poverty is
the cause of poverty.
• In the model “ the link between lack of capital
and underdevelopment is emphasized.
• The theory of the vicious circle of poverty can be
used both at the national and individual levels,
but we will concentrate on the individual level.
→For example; On the individual level, the vicious
circle of poverty starts with the statement that a
poor person.
 Cont.

A) Cannot pay for an adequate supply of food,

(B) thus is physically weak
(C) cannot work efficiently
(D) unable to earn much money
(E) thus is poor (A)
The circle starts all over again with a situation where
the person does not have money to get nutritious
food (B). This process goes on and on.
 Cont.
• The model does not explain why the person is poor or
what the cause of their poverty is.
• The vicious circle of poverty does not tell you
anything about how an individual or a country can
break out of the circle. The vicious circle of poverty -
Individual level
 Poverty Reduction

• The anti-poverty strategy depends heavily on reducing poverty through;

1.Promotion of economic growth:- overview of many studies show that:

– Growth is fundamental for poverty reduction through commercial

– Growth accompanied by progressive distributional change is better

than growth alone.

2.Protecting biodiversity

3. High initial income inequality is a slow down on poverty reduction.

– Poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction; and
wealth inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates.
 Cont.
Cont.
4. Reduction of barriers to the creation of new businesses, or
reducing barriers for existing business, as having the effect of
bringing more people into the formal economy.

5. Improving the social environment and abilities of the poor

– Subsidized (education, employment, health care)

– Assistance in finding employment.

6. Encouragement of political participation

3.4. Food security at different levels of analysis

1. National Level
 Food security at the national level is perhaps best described as a
satisfactory balance between food demand and food supply at
reasonable prices.
 This may intended to indicate a situation where there have been no
major disorders in food markets, where adequate food is available
and where most of the population have access to that food.
 Changes in food security can be identified over time by rising
prices.
 Cont..
• These will affect the poorest first, as they spend
a higher proportion of their income on food.

• There are countries where the overall supply of

food is clearly inadequate to meet its citizens'
needs.
The household level of food security is
probably the most important for the
analyst.
 The household
At this level of food
level, households are security
identified as food
secure if their entitlement for food is greater than
their needs,
 Defined as the aggregation of individual
requirements
 The individual level of food security

• At the individual level, the definition of food security

is much more straightforward.
• An individual is food secure if his or her food
consumption is always greater than need.
• This may be affected by individual earnings and
assets, or by the individual's position in the household.
The relationship between the levels of food security

It is clear that food security at one level does not imply food
security at a lower level of aggregation.
• A country which is food insecure will almost certainly contain
groups of the population which are food secure, and many
countries which are food secure at a national level will contain
groups of the population who suffer from severe food
insecurity. Food security at the household level does not imply
that all members of the household are food secure. .
 Food insecurity
 Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability
of nutritionally adequate and save foods.
 It is limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable
food in socially acceptable ways.
 It is a lack of consistence enough food access for
every person in to live healthy and active life.
 Some causes of food insecurity includes;
• Poverty, technological barriers.
• Unemployment
• Low income
• Lack of affordable housing
 Types of food insecurity

1. Chronic food insecurity

When individuals or groups of people suffer from food insecurity at

all of the time, then they can be said to suffer from chronic food

insecurity . A continuous decline in access to food.

It is a long term and persistent condition

2. Transitory food insecurity
• When households face a temporary decline in access to food, it is
called as transitory food insecurity.
• Transitory food insecurity may lead to chronic food insecurity,
depending on its frequent occurrences..
 Cont..
• For example, a two years drought may force the
households to sell their assets to survive. Then, this
leads to chronic food insecurity from transitory food
insecurity.
• Transitory food insecurity can be further divided into
two;
I. Temporary food insecurity and
II. Cyclical or seasonal food insecurity.
 Cont..

 Temporary food insecurity occurs when sudden and

unpredictable shocks, such as drought or pest attack, affect a
household’s entitlements.
• For urban households, sudden unemployment may also be a cause
of transitory food insecurity.
 Seasonal food insecurity occurs when there is a reg ular pattern of
inadequate access to food.
• This is often linked to agricultural seasons, particularly when it is
difficult for households to borrow foods.
 Chronic food insecurity Main difference
Transitory food insecurity
is... Long-term or persistent. Short-term and temporary.
Occurs People are unable to meet their There is a sudden drop in the ability
when... minimum food requirements over a to produce or access enough food to
sustained period of time. maintain a good nutritional status.
Results Extended periods of poverty, lack Short-term shocks and fluctuations in
from... of assets and inadequate access to food availability and access,
productive or financial resources. including year-to-year variations in
domestic food production, food prices
and household incomes.
can be Typical long term development It is relatively unpredictable and can
overco measures also used to address emerge suddenly.
me poverty, such as education or access This makes planning and
with... to productive resources, such as programming and requires different
credit. capacities and types of intervention,
They may also need more direct including early warning capacity and
access to food to enable them to safety net programmes
raise their productive capacity.
 Food Security Indictors
 Food security is defined as when everyone has at all times
access to and control over sufficient quantities of goods
quality food for an active healthy life while,
 Food insecurity refers to a lack of access to enough goods,
healthy, and culturally appropriate foods.
 Food security is a generally difficult concept to measure
accurately, especially in emergencies where food security
status may be shifting rapidly, the requirements for data and
analysis are high.
 Cont.
 Most measures of food security follow one or more of
the “four pillars” of food security;
I. Availability – This is determined by food prices,
food balance sheets, production estimates, and
household or market level food stocks.
II. Access – This is the pillar that mostly triggers a
humanitarian emergency.
III. Utilization – This is determined by malnutrition,
disease outbreaks, morbidity, and mortality.
IV. Stability – Income and sources, expenditures and
expenditure ratios, and especially assets.
 Food insecurity indicators
The most common key indicators used to
analyze (best used to measure the level) of
acute food insecurity are:
A. Household Diet Diversity Score (HDDS),
B. Household Hunger Scale (HHS)
C. Food Consumption Score (FCS)
D. Reduced Coping Strategy Index (rCSI)
and
E. Livelihood Coping Strategies (LCS)
 Cont.
• HDDS and FCS are typically recognized as proxies
for food quality; best used to understand the quality
and nutritional value of foods that people are
eating.
• HHS and rCSI are typically recognized as proxies
for food quantity; best used to measure the quantity
of food consumed but does not provide insight into
the nutrition value of the food consumed.
 Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
 It is an indicator of household food access.
 HDDS is a qualitative measure of food consumption that
reflects household access to a variety of foods.
 It can be described as the number of food groups
consumed by a household over a given reference period.
 A household’s ability to access food as well as its
socioeconomic status based on the previous 24 hours.
 This type of metric captures the number of different
kinds of food or food groups that people eat and the
frequency with which they eat them.
 Cont.

 It is an important indicator of food security for many

reasons.
A more diversified household diet is correlated with
 Caloric and protein adequacy,
 Percentage of protein from animal sources, and
 Household income,
• In general, any increase in household dietary diversity
reflects an improvement in the household’s diet.
• This indicator used to assess improvements in food
security
 Cont.
Steps; to calculate HDDS
1) Listing the group of foods used by the household (Example
A-L)
2) Each food group is assigned a score of 1 (if consumed) or 0
(if not consumed). The household score will range from 0
to 12. Values for A through L will be either “0” or “1” i;e
(HDDS (0-12)
3) Sum consumed food groups (A + B + C + D + E + F + G +
H + I + J + K + L)
4) Average HDDS =
But, it is no universal cut-off or target level that indicate the
household sufficiently diverse.
If Average HDDS is 33% the household with the highest
diversity.
 Food Consumption Score (FCS)
 The frequency weighted diet diversity score is a score
calculated using the frequency of consumption of
different food groups consumed by a household
during the 7 days .
 The most acceptable proxy indicator to measure
caloric intake and diet quality at household level
 It is a composite score based on dietary diversity,
food frequency, and relative nutritional importance of
different food groups.
 The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is an index that
was developed by the World Food Programmer
(WFP) in 1996.
 Cont.

 Which is then weighted according to the relative

nutritional value of the consumed food groups.
 For instance, food groups containing nutritionally dense
foods, such as animal products, are given greater weight
than those containing less nutritionally dense foods,
such as tubers.
 Based on this score, a household’s food consumption
can be further classified into one of three categories:
poor, borderline, or acceptable.
 The food consumption score is a proxy indicator of
household caloric availability.
 Cont.
 This proxy indicator for current household food
access is based on; Dietary diversity and Food
frequency
 Dietary diversity: This is the number of individual
foods consumed over a reference period.
 Food frequency: This is the number of days (in the
past week) of consumption of a specific food item.
• The household food consumption score is
calculated by multiplying each food group frequency
by each food group weight, and then summing these
scores into one composite score.
 Cont.
To calculate the FCS from these results, the consumption frequencies are
summed and multiplied by the standardized food group weight.
Households can then be further classified as having "poor," "borderline," or
"acceptable" food consumption by applying the WFP’s recommended cut-offs to
the food consumption score.
Steps:
1. Group food items in the specified food groups
2. Sum all the consumption frequencies of food items
3. Multiply the value of each food group by its weight
4. Sum the weighted food group scores to obtain FCS
5. Determine the household's food consumption status based on the following
thresholds out of or maximum of 112.
1. 0-21= Poor Severely food insecure,
2. 21.5-35= Borderline Which implies moderately secure,
3. >35=Acceptable Which implies food secure
 Coping Strategies Index (CSI)
 Coping strategies refer to people’s responses to famine.
 In times of food stress, people option to preserve productive
assets in order to protect livelihoods, rather than meet immediate
food needs.
 The types of coping strategies used by people in particular
activities indicate their priorities and the severity of food
insecurity.
 Measures the adjustments HH make in consumption and
livelihoods.
 Coping can be consumption changes; expenditure reduction;
income expansion;
 Adopted by WFP (World Food Programmer
 Cont..
 Some of the coping strategies that people adopted in the
early stages of famine or drought include;
• Household members migrating in search of work and
wild foods.
• Selling non-productive assets.
• Reducing food intake or changing the diet
• To cope, people may also switch to cheaper food that
may be less desirable and perhaps even less nutritious,
or they may opt to reduce the portion or number of
meals they consume.
• They may also choose to go hungry so as to preserve
their productive assets and future livelihoods.
The Household Hunger Scale (HHS)
 The indicator measures the scale of households’ food
deprivation.
 It is based on a (validated) idea that the experience of
household food deprivation causes predictable
reactions(response) that can be captured through a
survey and summarized on a scale.
 It focuses on the food quantity dimension of food
access and does not measure dietary quality.
 It should be used only in areas with very high levels
of food insecurity.
 Cont.
 The HHS can be used for a variety of objectives,
including to:
o Monitor the prevalence of hunger over time across
countries, or regions, to assess progress towards
meeting international development commitments
o To provide evidence for the development and
implementation of policies and programs that address
food insecurity and hunger
o Monitor and evaluate the impact of anti hunger
policies
o Provide information for early warning or nutrition and
food security surveillance
o Inform standardized food security
 Livelihood coping strategy (LCS)
• LCS indicates strategies, such as asset stripping,
engaged by households to meet food consumption gaps.
• The primary use of the LCS is to know if households are
using coping strategies to maintain or mitigate food
consumption gaps – which is a sign of food insecurity.
• For example, a household may have a low HHS and
borderline FCS; indicating only moderate food
consumption gaps. However, they may be engaging in
multiple emergency level livelihood coping strategies,
suggesting that the household is only able to meet food
consumption gaps by engaging in unsustainable
livelihood coping. Such as excess selling of livestock,
consuming green harvest, selling household assets.
 Spending on food
 Estimating the proportion of expenditure on food of the total
household income
 Considers the propensity of people closer to the edge of poverty
 If they spend a greater and greater proportion of their income on
food, which indicate a low food insecurity.
 Can also look at the proportion spent on different food groups
and we can determine food insecurity
Global Hunger Index (GHI) is annually calculated tool that
measures the level of hunger regionally, nationally, and globally
with three main dimensions,
Insufficient availability of food,
Shortfalls in the nutritional status of children and
Child mortality.
 Food Consumption Patterns

Food consumption surveys, also known as food intake surveys

or dietary surveys
 Which used to estimate food consumption patterns at the
national, regional, household and individual level.
• The Food Consumption Score (FCS) combines the elements of
‘quantity’ and ‘quality’ of food.
• It measures food diversity (the types of food consumed), food
frequency (the number of days each food group is consumed)
and the relative nutritional importance of different food groups.
 Cont.
• Individual food consumption patterns are affected by;
 A number of cultural, geographical and socio-economic factors and
 It can be used to quantify consumption patterns from the household level to
the national level.
• In Ethiopia, the capacity for dietary diversification efforts to improve the
nutritional status of the population is limited in the short term due to issues
related to availability, access and behaviors.
• The burden of under nutrition is very high in both peri-urban and rural
areas.
• Nationally, more than one in four households (26%) consume less than
acceptable diets: 10% of households have poor food consumption and 17%
 Cont.
• The Ethiopian diet chiefly consists of cereals (maize, sorghum, teff),
root crops, pulses and oil seeds.
• The national staple ‘injera’ is typically made from teff, which is
grown in the highlands, or sometimes from millet or sorghum.
• In the large livestock population, dairy and meat supply is unlimited,
with consumption of these products especially low in rural areas,
except in nomadic pastoralist districts (Somali and Afar) where milk
is a major component of the diet, consumed 4-5 days a week
compared with 1.5 days on average nationally.
• Fruit consumption is low across all districts.
 3.7. Food and Nutrition Security
• Food security: the condition when all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritional food to
meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy
life.
• Nutrition Security: The condition when all people have ongoing
access to the basic elements of good nutrition, i.e., a balanced diet, safe
environment, clean water, and adequate health care (preventive and
curative), and the knowledge needed to care for and ensure a healthy
and active life for all household members.
• Food is here defined as any substance that people eat and drink to
maintain life and growth.
 Cont.

• ‘Nutrition Security’ which can be defined as adequate nutritional status

in terms of protein, energy, vitamins, and minerals for all household
members at all times.
• “Food and nutrition security is achieved, if adequate food (quantity,
quality, safety, socio-cultural acceptability) is available and accessible
for and satisfactorily used and utilized by all individuals at all times to
live a healthy and active life.”
• Food safety is an umbrella term that encompasses many facets of
handling, preparation and storage of food to prevent illness and injury.
• Food security is affected by climate change, dependence on fossil fuels,
the loss of biodiversity and use of food crops for biofuels
Cont.
 3.8. The Food Balance Sheet

 A food balance sheet presents a

comprehensive picture of the pattern of a
country's food supply during a specified
reference period.
 The food balance sheet shows for each food
item i.e. each primary commodity availability
for human consumption which corresponds to
the sources of supply and its utilization.
 Cont.

• On the utilization side a distinction is made

between the quantities exported, fed to
livestock used for seed, losses during storage
and transportation, and food supplies available
for human consumption.
• The per capita supply of each such food item
available for human consumption is then
obtained by dividing the respective quantity by
 Cont.

Data on per capita food supplies are expressed in

terms of quantity and by applying appropriate
food composition factors for all primary and
processed products also in terms of dietary
energy value, protein and fat content.
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