World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 86

Constructing a Database for Food Security Assessments in Southeast Asia

to the northeastern part of the country
which has a long history of poverty and
underdevelopment. In Vietnam, the three
provinces in the panel include two, i.e.
Ha Tinh and Thua Thien Hue that belong
to the Central Highlands. These two
provinces also border the South China
Sea. The third province, Dak Lak is landlocked and belongs to the Southern part
of the country.
The
remaining
two
case
studies use data from Stung Treng,
the Northern Province in Cambodia.
The comprehensive household survey
conducted in 2013 aimed at measuring
vulnerability to poverty and food
insecurity of rural households. The
questionnaire
and
the
sampling
procedure were designed in line with
the above-mentioned DFG FOR 756
project being implemented in Thailand
and Vietnam. The total sample size in
Stung Treng amounted to ~600 randomly
sampled households.

with underweight children, group 2
are poor but do not have underweight
children, group 3 are nonpoor but they do
have underweight children, and the last
group are nonpoor without underweight
children.

Some differences can be observed
between the four groups, e.g. poor
households with underweight children
have lower per capita food consumption
although they may have the same level of
income as compared to poor households
with no underweight children. Also, the
former have a lower share of agricultural
income and rely relatively more on food
from natural resources which tend to be
more erratic in supply. Such difference
can no longer be observed for nonpoor
households. Another difference is
migration of the child’s mother. Poor
households with normal weighted
children have an 8% higher share of
mothers working outside the village. This
is also reflected in the time that mothers
spend outside the household, i.e., mothers
from poor households with normal
weighted children spend almost thrice the
time away. In nonpoor households such
differences are smaller. A major factor
seems to be assets. Poor households with
underweight children have only about
half the assets in value terms compared
with their counterfactual group. Again
this difference is smaller in absolute and
relative terms for the nonpoor groups.

Prenatal condition of children as
indicated by the mother’s height shows
some differences in the poor household
group while the mother’s education is
considerably higher in the nonpoor
groups.

Interestingly, no difference can
be observed in the food consumption

Poverty and nutrition

In this case study, we analyze the
relationship between poverty reduction
and the nutritional status of children
using the WFA. In this case study,
we explore the relationship between
poverty and food security. In line with
the literature, we find that households
below the poverty line tend to be more
food insecure measured in terms of
under nutrition of children. However,
food insecurity can still be a problem
for households above the poverty line.
In Annex 1, we present parameters
on individual, household, and village
levels for four groups of households in
Thailand. Group 1 are poor households
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