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A Treasure Trove of Information for Understanding Hidden Hunger
How Household Budget Surveys Can Reveal Hidden Food Insecurity

19 December 2008

> BACKGROUND
> MAIN FINDINGS
> En español

Collecting good statistics is the only way of objectively knowing how widespread hunger and malnourishment actually are. Yet, how reliable are the statistics we have and do they provide enough details to understand the whole picture? If we don’t ask the right questions, hunger and malnutrition can easily be over or underestimated.

A new book from FAO, Deriving Food Security Information from National Household Budget Surveys, shows how the regular national household budget surveys that many countries carry out are a treasure trove of information for policy makers and others who want to take action in the fight against hunger.

BACKGROUND

How Food Security Information is Measured Makes a Big Difference

Information about food is collected either by measuring how much food households acquire or consume. Because food acquisition is easier to measure, many hunger indicators are expressed in monetary terms. However, the case studies in the book show that only by measuring food consumption can we begin to throw light on the many hidden faces of hunger.

Indeed, knowing how much households spend on food does not tell us much about the quality and quantity of food they actually consume. Measuring food consumption is the only way of understanding if people are getting enough calories and nutrients to lead a healthy life.

Hidden Hunger

“Hidden” hunger may be more apparent using this approach. For example, people may be meeting their daily calorie needs with cheap carbohydrate-rich food because they cannot afford more expensive food rich in protein and other essential micro-nutrients. Malnutrition has a severe effect on children in particular, and hinders their normal development.

Statistics based on acquisition may falsely show people are buying enough food for their needs, totally missing the fact that:

• food is sometimes given away;
• re-sold for income; or
• thrown away because of inadequate storage facilities and rotting.

Measuring consumption also gives much more detailed information about patterns of food consumption in:

• various regions within countries;
• households with different income levels; and
• male and female headed households.

MAIN FINDINGS

Poorer households pay more for food

The country studies show that poorer households pay more for their food. This is because they:

• can only afford to buy small amounts of food at a time - thus paying more per unit;
• are often not able to properly store the food they buy, causing it to spoil, and be thrown away;
• buy food on credit and pay surcharges which make the food even more expensive; and
• cannot afford to buy more food when it is abundant (and cheaper) and store it for the lean season. Thus, poor households pay more for food when it is scarce.

Policy makers must take action to make sure the poor do not end up paying proportionately more for food.

Urban food insecurity is widespread and should be adequately acknowledged

In some countries, urban food insecurity is nearly at the same level as rural food insecurity. For example, a new report, released by the National Statistics Center (NSC) of Laos shows that 17% of the population living in urban areas and 25% of those in rural areas are undernourished. 1

One concrete step policy makers can take is to stimulate urban food markets by:

• increasing poor people’s access to food in urban areas; and
• increasing incomes in rural areas by supporting food production and forging better links to urban markets.

Without more detailed questions, it is easy to under or overestimate food consumption.

For example, in some countries, farm workers are provided with lunches by their employers. Unless this is made explicit, employers appear to consume much more than they actually do (and vice versa).

In urban areas, people working in the tourist industry, often regularly consume food provided by their employers which is not recorded.

As mentioned earlier, food is also thrown or given away, re-sold for income, etc.

When conducting surveys, it is very important to have a detailed list of foods and accurately describe and name them.

For example, in one survey, “zucchini” was incorrectly translated as “bacon.” This led to incorrect data about how much energy and protein people were actually consuming.

Food deprivation is widespread in some countries

The depth of food deprivation is the difference between an undernourished population’s average dietary energy intake and its average minimum daily energy requirement (MDER).

In some countries, poor people have problems even meeting the minimum daily energy requirement for a semi-active adult. For example, in Cambodia, the poorest only consume about 1435 calories/day - the equivalent of a reducing diet. 2

Written by Denise Melvin, with the collaboration of Ricardo Sibrian, editor of "Deriving Food Security Information from National Household Budget Surveys" ( FAO, 2008)



Footnotes:

1. Committee for Planning and Investment (National Statistics Centre) of the Lao PDR and FAO. 2007. Food Insecurity Assessment Based on Food Consumption Statistics Derived From the 2002/03 Lao PDR Expenditure And Consumption Survey. Vientiane. p.4

2. National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia and FAO. 2007. Summary Report Food Insecurity Assessment in Cambodia based on the 2004 Cambodia Socio-economic Survey. Phnom Penh. p.5