Overview of Food Security in Humanitarian Crises

1. Overview of Food Security in Humanitarian Crises gFSC IM Training 12-15 December 2017

2. OBJECTIVES OF SESSION Understand the concepts defining food security; terminology and tools to measure food insecurity; and a basic comprehension of response planning and options. * While food insecurity affects almost all countries, this session is focussed on humanitarian crises.*

3. Food Security in Numbers

4. Definition: FOOD SECURITY Physical AVAILABILITY of food. Food availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the level of food production, stock levels and net trade. Economic and physical ACCESS to food. An adequate supply of food at the national or international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security. Concerns about insufficient food access have resulted in a greater policy focus on incomes, expenditure, markets and prices in achieving food security objectives. Food UTILIZATION. Utilization is commonly understood as the way the body makes the most of various nutrients in the food. Sufficient energy and nutrient intake by individuals is the result of good care and feeding practices, food preparation, diversity of the diet and intra-household distribution of food. Combined with good biological utilization of food consumed, this determines the nutritional status of individuals. STABILITY of the other three dimensions over time. Even if your food intake is adequate today, you are still considered to be food insecure if you have inadequate access to food on a periodic basis, risking a deterioration of your nutritional status. Adverse weather conditions, political instability, or economic factors (unemployment, rising food prices) may have an impact on your food security status. Source: FAO, http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/al936e/al936e00.pdf Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. - 1996 World Food Summit

5. 1. AVAILABILITY Food availability is defined as sufficient quantities of foodof appropriate quality, supplied through domestic production or imports (including food assistance). • Failed harvest • Economic disruptions affecting importing of foodstuffs • Lack of markets • Blockades Ukraine, 2015: Attempt from Ukraine to block the passage of goods to Crimea from mainland.

6. 2. ACCESS Economic and physical ACCESS to food. • Lack of hard currency • Devaluation and/or inflation • Increase in prices • Blockades, destruction/obstruction of road networks South Sudan: Overview of inflation rates from April 2016 to January 2017.

7. 3. UTILIZATION A further component in the definition of food security concerns the actual quality and type of food supplied and a requirement that it should not merely satisfy protein-energy needs but provide the nutritional balance necessary for a healthy and active life; in addition to this was the recognition of preferences, traditional habits and socially acceptable food types when considering the definition of food security. “…access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” • Soil quality • Preparation • Poor water and sanitation facilities • Cultural preferences Somalia, 2017: Cholera spreading in Somalia, 50,000 cases foreseen according to WHO

8. 4. STABILITY Another component of food security is the time element. Food insecurity could be categorized as either chronic or transitory with the former representing a situation where the lack of food is a permanent feature and the latter describing a temporary shortage. “Access of all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life”. Somalia seasonal calendar. Six months of the year, there is a hunger period.

9. MEASUREMENT AND TERMINOLOGY • Crop and Food Security Vulnerability Assessments • Emergency Food Security Assessments (rapid) • Annual Needs Assessment • Emergency Food Security and Nutrition Assessment • Crop/Seed/Livestock Assessments • Market Monitoring and Assessments • Surveillance: Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (Somalia) – Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System (South Sudan) • Household profile (composition) • Income Sources • Expenditures • Food Sources • Consumption • Coping Strategies • Commodity Prices • Crop Planting and Yields • Crop/Vegetable Seed Availability • Livestock • Nutritional Status (MUAC)

10. Integrated Phase Classification The IPC standardized protocols (tools and procedures) respond to the need for a common approach for classifying various food insecurity situations, within and among countries, and across time. IPC makes a distinction between acute and chronic food insecurity at two points in time The IPC provides stronger links between information and action. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a set of standardized tools that aims at providing a "common currency" for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity. This evidence-based approach uses international standards, which allow comparability of situations across countries and over time. It is based on consensus-building processes to provide decision makers with a rigorous analysis of food insecurity along with objectives for response in both emergency and development contexts. *Take Away: IPC is an ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK which requires DATA. The ‘system’ needs strong statistically viable data which should come from food security and nutrition assessments*

11. Integrated Phase Classification For IPC, Famine exists in areas where, even with the benefit of any delivered humanitarian assistance, at least one in five households has an extreme lack of food and other basic needs. Extreme hunger and destitution is evident. Significant mortality, directly attributable to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease is occurring.

12. MEASUREMENT AND TERMINOLOGY • Dietary diversity and food frequency: This type of metric captures the number of different kinds of food or food groups that people eat and the frequency with which they eat them. Sometimes involves weighting these groups. The result is a score that represents the diversity of intake, but not necessarily the quantity, though such scores have been shown to be significantly correlated with caloric adequacy measures (IFPRI 2006, Coates et al. 2007). • Consumption behaviours: These measures capture food security indirectly, by measuring behaviours related to food consumption. E.g. the Coping Strategies Index or CSI, which counts the frequency and severity of behaviours in which people engage when they do not have enough food or enough money to buy food (Maxwell and Caldwell 2008) • Dietary Diversity and Food Frequency • Food Consumption Score (FCS); • ii. Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS); • iii. Spending on food • iv. Undernourishment • Consumption Behaviours • Coping Strategy Index (CSI); • ii. Reduced Coping Strategy Index (rCSI); • iii. Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale (HFIAS); • iv. The Household Hunger Scale (HHS); • v. Self-assessed measure of food security (SAFS).

13. MEASUREMENT: FOOD CONSUMPTION SCORE (FCS)

14. MEASUREMENT: Coping Strategy Index (CSI) The CSI measures behaviour: the things that people do when they cannot access enough food. There are a number of fairly regular behavioural responses to food insecurity—or coping strategies—that people use to manage household food shortage. These coping strategies are easy to observe. It is quicker, simpler, and cheaper to collect information on coping strategies than on actual household food consumption levels. Hence, the CSI is an appropriate tool for emergency situations when other methods are not practical or timely. Source: WFP 2008 http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/manual_guide_proced/wfp211058.pdf?_ga=2.129874634.751526458.1493901890-520102988.1483635709

15. Food Security Response Options • Agricultural Inputs (seeds, tools, fishing kits) • Livestock interventions • Capacity Building

16. Food Security Response Options Resources (funding, supply availability, air/road), access, government priorities… Community Consultations, FSC discussions, HRP/FLASH Food security assessments (EFSA, CFSVA, rapid assessment) Who does What Where

17. Food Security Response Options- Integration with Other Sectors • Malnutrition is often (not always) a consequence of food insecurity often complicated by other factors; • WASH, Nutrition, and Health sector integration essential to see positive OUTCOMES through food security programmes. • Convergence is a start but meaningful integration is where we need to be. Currently in Somalia there is a cholera outbreak affecting some 50,000 people, mostly children.

18. Food Security – Review and Questions • How do you define food security? Four elements? • Difference between conditional and unconditional food security programming? • What is the IPC? • What is the major driver of current humanitarian crises?