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Shorter, cheaper, quicker, better : linking measures of household food security to nutritional outcomes in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, and Tanzania

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  • Tiwari, Sailesh
  • Skoufias, Emmanuel
  • Sherpa, Maya

Abstract

Using nationally representative household survey data from five countries -- three from South Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal) and two from Sub-Saharan Africa (Tanzania and Uganda) -- this paper conducts a systematic assessment of the correlation between various measures of household food security and nutritional outcomes of children. The analysis, following the universally accepted and applied definition of food security, is based on some of the most commonly used indicators of food security. The results show that the various measures of household food security do appear to carry significant signals about the nutritional status of children that reside within the household. This result holds even after the analysis controls for a wide array of other socio-economic characteristics of the households that are generally also thought to be associated with the quality of child nutrition. If using these food security indicators as proxy measures for the underlying nutritional status of children is of some interest, then the results show that simple, cost-effective, and easy-to-collect measures, such as the food consumption score or the dietary diversity score, may carry at least as much information as other measures, such as per capita expenditure or the starchy staple ratio, which require longer and costlier surveys with detailed food consumption modules. Across five different countries in South Asia and Africa, the results suggest that the food consumption score, in particular, performs extremely well in comparison with all other measures from the perspective of nutritional targeting as well as for monitoring nutritional outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiwari, Sailesh & Skoufias, Emmanuel & Sherpa, Maya, 2013. "Shorter, cheaper, quicker, better : linking measures of household food security to nutritional outcomes in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Uganda, and Tanzania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6584, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6584
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Benjamin Schwab, 2020. "In the Form of Bread? A Randomized Comparison of Cash and Food Transfers in Yemen," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 91-113, January.
    2. Jones, Lindsey & d'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Whose resilience matters? Like-for-like comparison of objective and subjective evaluations of resilience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Anderson, Kym & Strutt, Anna, 2014. "Food security policy options for China: Lessons from other countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 50-58.
    4. Kym Anderson & Anna Strutt, 2015. "Implications for Indonesia of Asia's Rise in the Global Economy," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 69-94, April.
    5. Yanick Fredy Mvodo & François Colin Nkoa, "undated". "Adaptive capacity and nutritional status of households in Cameroon," Review of Socio - Economic Perspectives 202208, Reviewsep.
    6. Fan, Shenggen & Brzeska, Joanna, 2011. "The nexus between agriculture and nutrition: Do growth patterns and conditional factors matter?," 2020 conference briefs 1, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Kym Anderson & Anna Strutt, 2014. "Growth in Densely Populated Asia: Implications for Primary Product Exporters," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(1), pages 112-126, January.
    8. Keenan Marchesi & Marc Rockmore, 2023. "Conflict and nutrition: endogenous dietary responses in Nepal," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(1), pages 281-296, February.
    9. Rosina Wanyama & Theda Gödecke & Matin Qaim, 2019. "Food Security and Dietary Quality in African Slums," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, October.
    10. Choudhury, Samira & Headey, Derek D., 2016. "What drives diversification of national food supplies? A cross-country analysis," IFPRI discussion papers 1581, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Hossain, Marup & Mullally, Conner & Asadullah, M Niaz, 2016. "Measuring household food security in a low income country: A comparative analysis of self-reported and objective indicators," 2016 Annual Meeting, February 6-9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas 230101, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    12. Kedir T. Roba & Thomas P. O’Connor & Nora M. O’Brien & Chanyalew S. Aweke & Zenebe A. Kahsay & Nick Chisholm & Edward Lahiff, 2019. "Seasonal variations in household food insecurity and dietary diversity and their association with maternal and child nutritional status in rural Ethiopia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(3), pages 651-664, June.
    13. repec:fpr:2020cp:1(1 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Kym Anderson, 2016. "Agricultural Trade, Policy Reforms, and Global Food Security," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-46925-0, June.
    15. Jones, Lindsey & D'Errico, Marco, 2019. "Whose resilience matters?: like-for-like comparisons of objective and subjective measures of resilience," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101529, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food&Beverage Industry; Food Security; Regional Economic Development; Rural Poverty Reduction; Nutrition;
    All these keywords.

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