World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 81

World Food Policy

being most often assessed by researchers
and international organizations and
most often used to describe food secure
households (Maxwell, Vaitla, and Coates
2014; Coates 2013; FAO 2011; Wiesmann
et al. 2009). Economic access reflects a
household’s ability to acquire food in
sufficient quantity and quality and can
be realized based on own production,
market purchases, remittances, or barter
trade. Social access, however, might be
limited due to discrimination of gender
or minorities (WFP 2009a; 2008b; FAO
2006). This means that even though
enough food might be available, some
households might not be able to access
it. The utilization of food refers to the
quality and safety of food or its nutrients
content. It includes behavioral, health,
and hygiene aspects (Carletto, Zezza,
and Banerjee 2013; FAO 2006). Stability
covers dynamic aspects such as seasonal
fluctuations, shocks, and long-term
developments. In this regard a distinction
is made between chronic and transitory
food insecurity (Devereux 2006; Maxwell
and Smith 1992). In consequence, the
stability dimension of food security is
similar to the concept of vulnerability to
poverty (Hart 2009); Devereux (2006) has
defined vulnerability to food insecurity as
“the exposure and sensitivity to livelihood
shocks.”

outcome indicators following Maxwell
and Frankenberger (1992). Process
indicators for food availability refer to
measures for agricultural production,
access to natural resources, institutional
development, or market infrastructure,
while those for food access relate to the
means and strategies of households to
achieve food security, such as migration,
sale of assets, or collection of wild foods.

Outcome indicators include
the household calorie intake which is
generally derived from consumption
recall surveys over a predetermined
period of time and measures the amount
of energy consumed over a defined
reference period. i.e., a day or week
(Hoddinott 1999; Jones et al. 2013).
The food consumption score (FCS)
relates to food access but it considers a
qualitative and a quantitative dimension.
It is calculated based on how frequently
a household consumed different food
groups during the last 7 days. It has
been developed based on the fact that
it is difficult to collect very detailed
data on food or calorie intake. The FCS
thus approximates food consumption
considering the diversity of diets, the
frequency of food intake, and the relative
nutritional importance of food groups
(WFP 2008a). The diversity of diets relates
to the number of food groups a household
has consumed during the week. Food
Existing concepts and measures of food frequency considers the number of days
security
the household has consumed certain food
groups, and the nutritional importance

In the last 20 years, numerous depends on the nutrients in terms of
measures, especially for food access, calories, macro-, and micronutrients.
have been developed (Coates 2013). We The food groups cover (i) main staples,
summarize these concepts and their (ii) pulses, (iii) vegetables, (iv) fruits, (v)
related food security indicators in Table meat and fish, (vi) milk, (vii) sugar, and
1, categorizing them into process and (viii) oil, and they are weighted and then
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