Country typology on the basis of FNS. A typology of countries based on FNS outcomes and their agricultural, economic, political, innovation and infrastructure national profiles

Addressing short- and long-term challenges of global food and nutrition security entails putting the right policies and strategies in place. In the context of FoodSecure project, this involves analysing drivers of global FNS and drawing suitable conclusions based on empirical evidence from different countries and regions of the world. This typology facilitates calibration of models and interpretation of results from case studies, and also it provides guidance on selection of case studies by FoodSecure project partners. In this regard, the typology classifies regions and livelihood systems based on the countries' characteristics including their food or nutrition security profiles, as well as on their agricultural, economic, (agricultural) innovation systems, social and political profiles. Methodologically, it builds upon existing country classifications used by major international agencies. Yet, existing multidimensional typologies reviewed in this study often rely on indices and apply equal weights (or fixed weights ex ante) to indicators within thematic profiles. The proposed typology however differs not only by its broad coverage of FNS indicators and their determinants, but also through its method of determining indicator weights empirically through Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and its component loadings. To derive a unique thematic score for each country, only the first principal component which accounts for the highest share of the total variance is retained for it provides the best summary of the data. Accordingly, a food or nutrition security score is calculated using PCA on different groups' of FNS indicators and their potential determinants. Each country is then clustered according to: (1) its quintile score on FNS and its quintile score on one of the key thematic indicators, and, (2) its position as high or low relative to the median scores for food security and its determinants. Results presented in this typology are believed would help refine selection of case studies or model scenarios.