Testing Food Security Scales for LowCost Poverty Assessment

1
Testing Food Security Scales for Low-Cost Poverty
Assessment

• A Research Status Report
• October 17, 2003
• Dr. Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez

2
Why Study Food Insecurity?

• Intuitive link to basic deprivation
  characteristic of the very poor.
• Shown to be sensitive to MED programs.
• USDA scaling method is relatively easy and well
  validated in U.S. context
• May be appropriate poverty indicator by itself
  and/or in combination with others.
• Needs to be validated against US1/day.

3
Relationship between Household Food Insecurity
and Per Capita Consumption

• Food insecurity determined by 17-item Household
  Food Security Scale
• Yes/No to a series of questions reflecting
  increasing severity
• Score 0 to 9 from secure to insecure with
  hunger

• Consumption module of the LSMS
• Expenses for Education Food and cooking fuel
  Non-food items Daily expenses Health Dwelling
  and services Remittances Durable goods

4
Four Countries

• Bolivia - Achacachi altiplano - April 2003
• Burkina Faso - Plateau Central - June 2003
• Ghana - northern region - August 2003
• Philippines - northern island - Dec. 2003
• Samples 300 households, 2/3 CwE clients, 1/3
  non-clients both poorer and better off, rural
  (2/3) and urban (1/3), mostly women (83-96)

5
Findings in Bolivia and Burkina

• Food security scaling works in both - order of
  questions reflects increasing severity
• 85 of Bolivian and 75 of Burkinabe HH living on
  1/day were classified as food insecure.
• Probability of living on 1/day is 2 to 2.8
  times higher for households classified as food
  insecure than for food secure.

6
More Findings

• 90 of Burkinabe households classified as food
  insecure but only 29 of Bolivian households so
  classified were also classified as living on less
  than 1/day per capita .
• Food security scaling may not discriminate well
  between differing consumption levels above or
  below the US1 cutoff even if it discriminates
  well those above from those below.

7
Questions

• Why the differences between Bolivia and Burkina
  Faso?
• Will the methods correlate as well or better in
  Ghana and the Philippines?
• How strong a correlation is strong enough to make
  a good enough proxy ???
• Which (food security or consumption) is the
  better proxy of poverty ???