WHAT IS FOOD AND

NUTRITION SECURITY?
 Learning objectives

• Identify the core concepts food security and

nutrition and how they are applied to
Bangladesh context
• Define the three/four pillars of food
security and identify examples and
applications of each
• Understand the purpose and application of
the Food and Nutrition Security Conceptual
Framework
 Evolution of the Concept of Food Security

 World Food Conference 1974: Food security focused

on food availability
 World Food Summit 1996: Food security focused on
Availability, Access, Utilization, and Quality of food
(WFP, 1996)
 Food crisis of 2007-2008: Food security also focused
on stability of food availability and prices
 Resilience of the food systems (Babu and Blom,
2014)
 Food Security as a Human Right

 At United Nations General Assembly in 1966, it was

defined and formalized the right to food as a basic
human right.
 States have the obligation to provide assistance for
members of society unable to meet their food needs
through their own efforts.
 WHAT IS FOOD SECURITY?

The 1996 World Food Summit definition:

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have
physical and economic access to:
• Sufficient food
• Safe food, and
• Nutritious food
to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for
an active and healthy life (FAO, 1996)
 Five Aspects of Food Security

 Availability: Production + Imports + Stock Change

+ Food Aid II.
 Access: Own production + Cash income + In-kind-
transfers of food III.
 Quality of the diet: Consumption of calories +
proteins + micronutrients in proper balance
 Utilization: Safe and nutritious food can be utilized
Stability: Food is available at all times for all
people
The pillars of food security
 Food availability: The
amount of food physically
available to a household or
at national level;
 Access to food: The
physical and economical
ability of a household to
acquire adequate amounts
of food;
 Food utilization: The intra-
household use of the food
accessible and the
individual’s ability to
absorb and use those
nutrients.
Food availability
The physical presence of food
stocks in the area of concern
through:

 Food produced in the area

 Trade: food brought in through
market mechanisms
 Stocks held by traders or in govt.
reserves
 Transfers of food by govt. or aid
agencies
Food access
How easily house holds can get
food from:

 Own production
 Hunting, fishing or wild foods
 Purchase
 Barter/exchange
 Gifts
Food utilization
(a) a households capacity to
make use of food and (b) an
individuals ability to absorb and
metabolize nutrients; depends
on:
 Storage, processing &
preparation
 Feeding practices
 Intra-household sharing of food
 Health status of each
household member

N.B.food utilization includes

nutrition and consumption
 Challenges to achieving food security are
large and complex
 Changing population and demographics
 Income growth, rising demand, and diet changes
 Natural resource constraints
 High and volatile food and energy prices
 Higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather
events
 Climate change and resilient food systems
Food Insecurity as a Symptom of Poverty
 Food Security and Hunger

Hunger: lack of food intake necessary to provide energy

and nutrients for fully productive and healthy lives
Interconnectedness of poverty, food
security, and nutrition
 Why does this matter?

Impact of shock on: Response / Programme

Availability import facilitation, market support

food/cash transfers, household

Access production, community/govt
safety nets

Utilization nutritional, health, wat/san,

hygiene, education programmes
 Temporal dimensions of food security

CHRONIC TRANSITORY (ACUTE)

 Long-term or persistent  Short-term or

inability to meet temporary inability to
minimum food meet minimum food
requirements requirements,
indicating a capacity
to recover
Chapter 2: Food and Nutrition Security:
Indicators and Measurement
Broad Definitions of Food and Nutrition security
 A history of the “food problem”: from
widespread hunger to food security for all
The four pillars of food and nutrition security
 From the MDGs to the SDGs

MDGs:
• “To address the problems of extreme poverty in its many
dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate
shelter, and exclusion, while promoting gender equality, education,
and environmental sustainability” (UN Millennium Project, 2005)

SDGs:
• Universal agenda for People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace,
Partnership
• “Leave no one behind”
• “Every country is a developing country” (D. Nabarro)
• “The agenda is one and indivisible”
 Food Security in the Development Agenda

• MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty • SDG 2: End hunger, achieve food security and
and hunger improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

 Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger

 Target 1C: Halve, between and ensure access by all people,
1990 and 2015, the in particular the poor and people
proportion of people who in vulnerable situations, including
suffer from hunger infants, to safe, nutritious and
 • Indicator 1.8 Prevalence of sufficient food all year round
underweight children under-  • Indicator 2.1.1 Prevalence of
five years of age undernourishment
 • Indicator 2.1.2 Prevalence of
 • Indicator 1.9 Proportion of moderate or severe food
population below minimum insecurity in the population, based
level of dietary energy on the Food Insecurity Experience
consumption Scale (FIES)
Causal pathways among targets in SDG2
FNS Level
FNS Level
Food and nutrition security distal, intermediate
and proximal determinants.
Instruments to assess Food and Nutrition Security at
different social and administrative levels
Most common Food and Nutrition Security indicators
at different social and administrative levels
 Methods for measuring food security

There are five commonly used methods that can be

used to assess food security:
i) the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) method
for estimating calories available per capita at the
national level;
ii) household income and expenditure surveys;
iii) individual’s dietary intake;
iv) anthropometry; and
v) experience-based food insecurity measurement
scales
Typology of food security indicators
Derived and fundamental food insecurity
measures
Most Common Indicators of Nutritional Status
Cut-off Values for Public Health
Significance
Indicators to measure food security
Definition of the Indicators (DDS and FCS)
Definition of the Indicators (Kcal and Food
expenditure)
Definition of the Indicators (Consumption
behaviours)
Definition of the Indicators (Consumption
behaviors)
Dietary Diversity Indices
 Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)

 The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) was released in

2006 as part of the FANTA II Project as a population-level
indicator of household food access.
 Household dietary diversity can be described as the number of
food groups consumed by a household over a given reference
period, and is an important indicator of food security for many
reasons.
 A more diversified household diet is correlated with caloric and
protein adequacy, percentage of protein from animal sources, and
household income (Swindale & Bilinsky, 2006 ).
 The HDDS indicator provides a glimpse of a household’s ability to
access food as well as its socioeconomic status based on the
previous 24 hours (Kennedy et al., 2011 ).
 The questionnaire can be used at the household or
individual level according to the purpose of the survey
 Comparison of use of the questionnaire and
construction of the score for household or individual
level
Aggregation of food groups from the
questionnaire to create HDDS
 Strengths and Weaknesses

 One strength of the HDDS is that the standardized questions are simple and can
be easily understood by both enumerators and respondents, and the full set of
questions usually takes less than 10 minutes per respondent (Swindale &
Bilinsky, 2006 ).
 However, the standardized questionnaire provided by the 2011 FAO
guidelines is not culture or population specific, so it should be adapted
appropriately in adherence with the guidelines before use in a specific context
(Kennedy et al., 2011 ).
 HDDS does not provide any information on intra-household food distribution.
 There is no universally accepted cut-off for this indicator that could separate
households that have a "sufficiently diverse" diet from those that do not.
 Data Source and links

Data Source Links to guidelines

 The source of data for the HDDS  Swindale and Bilinsky, (2006).
is based on a recall of food "Household Dietary Diversity
groups consumed by the Score (HDDS) for Measurement
of Household Food Access:
household in the previous 24 Indicator Guide"
hours.
 Kennedy et al., (2011).
 24-hour Dietary Recall, Food "Guidelines for Measuring
Frequency Household and Individual
Questionnaires (FFQs), Dietary Diversity"
and Household Consumption  https://www.fao.org/3/i1983e
and Expenditure Survey (HCES) /i1983e00.pdf
data
Aggregation of food groups from the
questionnaire to create WDDS
Micronutrients of interest and corresponding food
groups in the dietary diversity questionnaire
 Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W)

 MDD-W is a population-level indicator of diet diversity

validated for women aged 15-49 years old.
 The MDD-W is a dichotomous indicator based on 10
food groups and is considered the standard for
measuring population-level dietary diversity in women of
reproductive age.
 According to the MDD-W, women who have consumed at
least 5 of the 10 possible food groups over a 24-hour
recall period are classified as having minimally adequate
diet diversity.
 Method of Construction

The 10 food groups required for the MDD-W are:

 Strengths and Weaknesses

 One advantage of MDD-W is that it is simple to collect,

tabulate, and interpret.
 The results are easy to communicate (i.e. either
households achieve minimally adequate diversity or not).
 The threshold for adequacy is standardized which
enables comparisons across time and space.
 The tool must be adapted to include culturally relevant
examples of foods for each of the 10 food groups.
 A strength of the MDD-W is its simplicity as a measure
of a key aspect of diet quality, but it remains only a
rough proxy for nutrient adequacy.
 Data Source & Links

 The MDD-W is based on the recall of food

groups consumed in the previous 24-hours by
the respondent.
 FAO and FHI, (2016). "Minimum dietary
diversity for women: a guide for
measurement"
 MDD score for children 6-23 months old is a population-level indicator designed by the
World Health Organization (WHO) to assess diet diversity as part of infant and young
child feeding (IYCF) practices among children 6-23 months old.
 Method of Construction
 Data are gathered from a questionnaire administered to the child’s caregiver.
 Respondents are asked to indicate whether or not their child consumed any food over the
previous 24 hours from each of eight food groups.
 The eight food groups included in the questionnaire are:

Strengths and Weaknesses

it is simple to collect, tabulate, and interpret, and
is applicable across socio-cultural contexts.
It is also easily disaggregated into smaller age
groups, including 6-11 months, 12-17 months,
and 18-23 months
•
•
 The Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) for children 6-23 months old, is one of eight core indicators for
assessing infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices developed by the WHO.
 The MAD indicator is a composite indicator composed of the Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) and
Minimum Meal Frequency.
 Method of Construction
 This indicator is calculated separately for breastfed and non-breastfed children and includes information
on two components:
 Minimum Dietary Diversity: Breastfed child consumed foods from 5 out of 8 of the food groups during
the previous day.
 Minimum meal frequency: Child receives solid, semi-solid, or soft foods (but also includes milk for non-
breastfed children) the minimum number of times or more over the previous day.
 The minimum number of times are:
 2 times for breastfed infants 6-8 months; 3 times for breastfed children 9-23 months; 4 times for non-
breastfed children 6-23 months
 To calculate the indicator, information on breastfed and non-breastfed children is :
 Breastfed children 6-23 months of age who had at least the MDD and the minimum meal frequency during the previous day / Breastfed
children 6-23 months of age
 AND Non-breastfed children 6-23 months of age who received at least 2 milk feedings and had at least the MDD not including milk feeds
and the minimum meal frequency during the previous day / Non-breastfed children 6-23 months of age
 Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS)

 The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) is one of the four experience-based food insecurity
scales.
 HFIAS is constructed from a short questionnaire that captures households’ behavioral and psychological
manifestations of insecure food access, such as having to reduce the number of meals consumed or cut
back on the quality of the food due to a lack of resources.
 Method of Construction
 The HFIAS module covers a recall period of 30 days, and consists of two types of questions: nine
"occurrence" and nine "frequency-of-occurrence" questions.
 The respondent is first asked if a given condition was experienced (yes or no) and, if it was, then with
what frequency (rarely, sometimes, or often). The resulting responses can be transformed into either a
continuous or categorical indicator of food security.
 The respondent is first asked if a given condition was experienced (yes or no) and, if it was, then with
what frequency (rarely, sometimes, or often). The resulting responses can be transformed into either a
continuous or categorical indicator of food security.
 The resulting responses can be transformed into either a continuous or categorical indicator of food
security. When calculating the HFIAS as a continuous indicator, each of the nine questions is scored 0-3,
with 3 being the highest frequency of occurrence, and the score for each is added together. The total
HFIAS can range from 0 to 27, indicating the degree of insecure food access. As a categorical variable,
households are categorized as food secure, mildly food insecure, moderately food insecure, or severely
 Household Hunger Scale (HHS)
 The Household Hunger Scale (HHS) is one of the four experience-based food insecurity scales contains
the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
The HHS, derived directly from the HFIAS, includes only three hunger-related aspects of insecure food
access, as these items were shown to be culturally invariant across multiple sociocultural contexts (Deitchler
et al., 2010 ), allowing for cross-country comparisons.
 HHS is different from the other household food insecurity indicators as it assesses only the most severe
experiences of food insecurity.
 Method of Construction
 The HHS module covers a recall period of 30 days, and consists of two types of questions (three
"occurrence" and three "frequency-of-occurrence" questions).
 The respondent is first asked if a given condition was experienced (yes or no) and, if it was, then with what
frequency (rarely, sometimes, or often).
 The resulting responses can be transformed into either a continuous or a categorical indicator of hunger.
 When calculating the HHS as a continuous indicator, each of the six questions is scored 0-2, with 0 being
"did not occur," 1 being "rarely and sometimes," and 2 being "often." The score for each of the three
questions is then added together, and the total HHS ranges from 0 to 6, indicating the degree of insecure
food access.
 As a categorical variable, households are categorized as "little to no hunger in the household" (0-1),
"moderate hunger in the household" (2-3), or "severe hunger in the household" (4-6). For more guidance,
 Food Consumption Score (FCS)
 The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is an index that was developed by the World Food
Programme (WFP) in 1996.
 The FCS aggregates household-level data on the diversity and frequency of food groups
consumed over the previous seven days, which is then weighted according to the relative
nutritional value of the consumed food groups.
 Based on this score, a household’s food consumption can be further classified into one of
three categories: poor, borderline, or acceptable. The food consumption score is a proxy
indicator of household caloric availability.
 Method of Construction
 A brief questionnaire is used to ask respondents about the frequency of their household's
consumption of eight different food groups over the previous seven days.

https://resources.vam.wfp.org/data-analysis/quantitative/food-security/food-
consumption-score
 Chapter 3 Bangladesh Health, Nutrition, & stunting
and Obesity Trends and drivers of change
 Overview

 Bangladesh is 'off course' to meet all of the

global nutrition targets.
Prevalence of infant and young child feeding indicators
Prevalence of stunting, wasting and overweight in children
under 5 years of age
Prevalence of infants with low birth weight and obesity
Prevalence of anaemia among women of reproductive age
Determinants associated with stunting reductions
Water and sanitation
 Basic drivers
Income, poverty and inequality

Gender and women's empowerment

Immediate drivers – nutrition specific policy and
programming
Planned nutrition activities listed in the NNS
Operational Plan
Chapter 4: Agricultural development
and the dietary transition
 Nutrition transition

The nutrition transition, a term coined in the early 1990s by Popkin (1993, 1994), refers to
systematic changes in nutritional intake, body size and health associated with economic
development.

The term focuses particularly on rising rates of obesity and diet-related diseases which were
increasingly observed since the 1980s, alongside the improvements in height and mortality
which had occurred slowly over many decades in now-industrialized countries and then
spread rapidly to lower-income countries as documented by Fogel (2004), Deaton (2007)
and others.
 Agricultural transformation

The agricultural transformation is a much older term referring to

systematic changes in farm production and food markets observed
alongside economic development, as part of the larger process of
structural transformation and industrialization (Johnston and Mellor
1961).
The term focuses particularly on the rising role of markets,
specialization and input use within agriculture, as well as changes in
labor use and farm size with the rise of nonfarm employment and
increased consumption of nonfood goods and services.
Agricultural transformation had been observed to occur slowly in the
18th and 19th centuries, then spread more rapidly in the 20th
century as documented for example by Hayami and Ruttan (1971).
 Agricultural transition and nutrition transition

from a focus on agriculture (how to produce more food) to nutrition (which foods should
be produced)
 From more food to different foods: the dietary
transition by region, 1961-2011

That chart contrasts horizontal movements towards more food per person with
vertical changes in diet composition in each region of the world. The length of each
line shows the magnitude of change from 1961 to 2011, generally from left to right.
 What is the nutrition transition?

The nutrition transition refers to a shift in dietary patterns from diets

low in calories and nutrients, to diets high in calories but still
inadequate in their balance of nutrients (Paarlberg, 2012).
Excessive energy intake relative to energy expenditure, together with
inadequate intake of some beneficial nutrients, is associated with
consumption of more processed foods and more meals away from
home.
By the early 1990s, these dietary changes also began to occur in low-
to middle-income countries and are now evident across Asia, Latin
America, North Africa, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
 Stages of Nutrition transition
Nutrition transition as having three stages (Shetty, 2013):
During the first stage, people consume a diet mainly of plant-based
foods that is inadequate in calories. Many people produce their own
food, which results in both a monotonous diet and a high level of
mandatory physical activity.
In the second stage, people gradually consume more calories overall,
including more animal source foods, processed foods, fat, sugar, and
other sweeteners. Fewer people produce their own food at home, so
more food is purchased outside of the home and people perform less
mandatory physical activity for food production.

Finally, in the third stage, people transition to eating less fat, sugar, and
processed foods and more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
 The nutrition transition and agricultural
transformation





Structural transformation in 86 countries
Long-run patterns of structural transformation in
Japan and Indonesia
 The stylized trends in total agricultural output, output per agricultural
worker, agriculture as a share of the labour force and in GDP, during the
course of the structural transformation (from ‘poor’ to ‘rich’)
Rural population increases rapidly in poorer countries, and declines in rich
countries
Agriculture’s share of employment falls steadily with income and has not
shifted
Output per worker in agriculture is lower than in other sectors, but has
shifted up
Dietary transformation
The dietary transformation in Southeast Asia
Annualized percentage change in rice consumption by quintile
and location (Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh)
Food policy’s pro-staples bias is diminished