World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 84

Constructing a Database for Food Security Assessments in Southeast Asia

Drivers of household food insecurity

market, e.g., they have limited access
to credit, and (3) they are responsible
for maintaining the household and
childcare. On the other hand, as shown
in different settings in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America (Quisumbing et al. 1995;
von Braun et al. 1992), female-headed
households can also be more food secure
due to the fact that women spent more of
their income on food than men.

Other drivers of food security for
rural households relate to the ownership
of land and livestock, or distance. While
landowners are able to grow food for
own consumption and/or sale, landless
households depend on other often scarce
and low-paid employment opportunities
and tend to be more food insecure
(von Braun et al. 1992). With respect
to livestock, it is an important source
of protein and micronutrients, such as
iron or vitamin A, if consumed at home,
but at the same time if sold, it provides
income and bartering power, and serves
as a buffer for food insecure times (FAO
2011). Jones, Shrinivas, and Bezner-Kerr
(2014) and Sraboni et al. (2014) showed
that the diets of households in Malawi
and in Bangladesh benefit from a diverse
agricultural
production,
including
livestock. The distance to markets also
seems to be correlated with food security
(Ahmed et al. 2009).
Also,
nonfarm
activities
determine the food security status of rural
hous eholds. They provide important
opportunities for diversifying income
sources, smoothing consumption, or
overcoming imperfections in credit
markets (Ruben and van den Berg
2001). There is evidence on this, e.g., for
Nigeria (Babatunde and Qaim 2010),
Ghana (Owusu, Abdulai, and Abdul-

As emphasized in the literature,
the most important determinant of a
household’s food security status is poverty
(e.g., von Braun et al. 1992; Barrett
2010). Ahmed et al. (2009) compared
poverty and food consumption across 20
countries and found a high correlation
between living below the poverty line
and consuming an insufficient amount of
calories. The Asian Development Bank in
its 2014 key indicator report (ADB 2014)
has proposed the upward adjustment
of the poverty line by weighting food
consumption shares with the food price
index. It was estimated that by doing so
the number of poor people in Asia would
be ~15% higher (ADB 2014).
Demographic
characteristics
and endowment with human capital
of the household have also been found
to be important determinants of food
insecurity. For example, food insecure
households tend to have more members in
general, but also more young children and
older dependents who do not contribute
to the household’s income (von Braun et
al. 1992). Education helps households to
improve their skills and productivity or
engage in better paying jobs, thus having a
positive effect on food security as it (WFP
2009b; Bogale 2012). The gender of the
household head determines household’s
food security, although the results so far
have been ambiguous. Kassie, Ndiritu,
and Stage (2014) found that femaleheaded households in Kenya are more
likely to be food insecure. Fuwa (2000)
found that female-headed households
face a “triple burden”: (1) they are often
the single earners, (2) they face various
disadvantages in the labor or financial
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