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Can FAO's measure of chronic undernourishment be strengthened?

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Author Info
Smith, Lisa C.
Naiken, Logan
Abstract

In its Sixth World Food Survey released at the 1996 World Food Summit, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that 841 million people in developing countries are chronically undernourished. This number and its country- and regional-level disaggregations have proved tremendously useful to countless aid agencies and researchers. In the context of a recent wave of new nationally-representative household food consumption and expenditure data, this paper examines the estimation methodology underlying this food insecurity indicator, which relies on national aggregate measures of food availability and distribution. The paper finds that the measure is methodologically biased toward national food availability and does not fully account for the effects of poverty—the most widespread cause of food insecurity in developing countries. The implications of this bias for use of the indicator in cross-country comparisons of food insecurity and for tracking changes in it over time are drawn out. The paper concludes by arguing that the time has come to review the potential for employing the new household survey data for strengthening the empirical foundations of the FAO's measure of chronic undernourishment.

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Paper provided by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in its series FCND discussion papers with number 44.

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Date of creation: 1998
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Handle: RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:44

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Related research
Keywords: Food security Measurement Methodology. ; Food consumption Statistics. ;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Haddad, Lawrence James & Bhattarai, Saroj & Immink, Maarten D. C. & Kumar, Shubh K., 1996. "Managing interactions between household food security and preschooler health," FCND discussion papers 16, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  2. Engle, Patrice L. & Menon, Purnima & Haddad, Lawrence, 1999. "Care and Nutrition: Concepts and Measurement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1309-1337, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Ravallion, Martin & Shaohua Chen, 1996. "What can new survey data tell us about recent changes in distribution and poverty?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1694, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Haddad, Lawrence James & Peña, Christine & Nishida, Chizuru & Quisumbing, Agnes R. & Slack, Alison T., 1996. "Food security and nutrition implications of intrahousehold bias," FCND discussion papers 19, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  5. Haddad, Lawrence James & Bhattarai, Saroj & Immink, Maarten D. C. & Kumar, Shubh K., 1996. "Managing interactions between household food security and preschooler health:," 2020 vision discussion papers 16, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  6. Maxwell, Simon, 1996. "Food security: a post-modern perspective," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 155-170, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Pinstrup-Andersen, Per & Pandya-Lorch, Rajul & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1997. "The world food situation," Food policy reports 7, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  8. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 565-91, September.
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Diaz-Bonilla, Eugenio & Robinson, Sherman & Thomas, Marcelle, 2002. "On boxes, contents, and users," TMD discussion papers 82, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  2. Sumiter Broca, 2002. "Food Insecurity, Poverty and Agriculture: A Concept Paper," Working Papers 02-15, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA). [Downloadable!]
  3. Diaz-Bonilla, Eugenio & Babinard, Julie & Pinstrup-Andersen, Per & Thomas, Marcelle, 2002. "Globalizing health benefits for developing countries," TMD discussion papers 108, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  4. Smith, Lisa C. & Haddad, Lawrence James, 2000. "Explaining child malnutrition in developing countries: a cross-country analysis," Research reports 111, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  5. Diaz-Bonilla, Eugenio & Thomas, Marcelle & Robinson, Sherman & Cattaneo, Andrea, 2000. "Food security and trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization," TMD discussion papers 59, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  6. Zhang, Xiaobo & Rockmore, Marc & Chamberlin, Jordan, 2007. "A typology for vulnerability and agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa:," IFPRI discussion papers 734, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  7. Wiesmann, Doris, 2006. "A global hunger index: measurement concept, ranking of countries, and trends," FCND discussion papers 212, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
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