Chapter Seven

Food and Nutrition Security

Addisalem Gizachew
 Food security
• Food security is defined as a state in which “all
people at all times have both physical and
economic access to sufficient food to meet their
dietary needs for a productive and healthy life”
(USAID, 1992).
• access by all people at all times to enough food
for an active healthy life
• focuses on the availability of food and the
ability to acquire it
 The 3 pillars of food security

1.Food Availability:

Is achieved when sufficient quantities of food are consistently

available to all individuals within a country.

In other word Availability refers an adequate supply of food within

the country or region

Availability relates only to the physical presence of the food e.g

be it from own production or on the markets

 The 3 pillars cont…
2. Food Access:

Access is ensured when all households and all individuals

within those households have sufficient resources to obtain
appropriate foods for a nutritious diet
Access depends on :
Income available to the household

The distribution of income within the household

The price of food (afford to purchase food at the market?)
The right to consume the harvest
 The 3 pillars cont…
3. Food Utilization/Consumption:
Refers to the ability of the human body to take food and convert it into
either energy which is either used to undertake daily activities or is stored
the conversion efficiency of the body.
Refers to Biological use, which is linked to a person’s health.

Effective food utilization depends on:

Food storage and processing techniques

Basic principles of nutrition

Proper childcare and illness management

Potable water and adequate sanitation

 Types of food insecurity in Ethiopia
• Two types of food insecurity are commonly
distinguished in Ethiopia:
• Chronic food insecurity: this is when a household is
continually unable to meet the food needs of its
members
• the result of overwhelming poverty
• Transitory food insecurity: this occurs when a
household faces a temporary problem in meeting the
food needs of its members
• Transitory food insecurity is short-term
 Food insecurity…
• Both chronic and transitory(acute) food
insecurity are common in Ethiopia
 Nutrition Security
• Nutrition security-a broader concept -refers to access to
individuals to nutrients & their utilization for optimal health
• Nutrition security exists when food security is supported by an
environment of adequate sanitation, health services and care,
allowing for a healthy and active life.

(Committee on world Food Security, 2012)

 Nutrition Security cont...
• Focuses on 3 factors (the pillars of nutrition security)
 food, care & health
comprising a framework-“food-care-health
framework”

• “food-care-health framework”-underlying
determinants of NS
household food security
adequate health services & environmental hygiene
(health status & public health environment)
care of the vulnerable segments of the population
 FNS cont…
significant difference:
• Food security over emphasizes the economic 
approach in which food as commodity is a 
central focus.
• Nutrition security focuses on the biological 
approaches in which centers of the nutritional 
status of the human being
 Instruments for the prevention and
management of food crises

– Nutrition-oriented agriculture and food diversification

– Early Warning Systems and Market Information
systems
– Food Aid
– Food Security Reserves
– Food Security Funds
– Crisis Management Plans
– Sequence of interventions in an event of food
insecurity
 Indicators for measuring the nutritional status at
household level – the manifestation of malnutrition

• Malnutrition indicators
– Indicators of nutritional status in children , adults , and women are
used to assess malnutrition
• Indicators immediate causes of malnutrition
– Food consumption indicators
– Indicators of health status
• Indicators of underlying causes of malnutrition
– Indicators / issues for food security (access to food) at household
level
– Indicators / issues for health services
– indicators / issues for caring capacity- care practices
– Indicators / issues for environmental conditions
 Instruments and methods to assess the
Food and Nutrition Security at micro and meso level

• Anthropometry
• Food consumption surveys – individual dietary
surveys
• Laboratory methods
• Qualitative assessments of the Food and
Nutrition Security situation
 Instruments and methods to asses FNS cont…

• food system analysis

– Food supply- food production, purchase, etc
– Food preservation and storage
– Food preparation
Micro level: household, family, individual
Meso level: community ( District, village,
province, city)
 Early warning system
• "..a process of information gathering and policy
analysis to allow the prediction of developing crises
and action to prevent them or contain their effects“
• the objectives of the EW system are to provide
assessments of food prospects within the country
and to detect (as early as possible) the likelihood of
deterioration in food security or, in worse case
scenarios, impending disaster.
 Early warning system…
• The EW system’s parameters are wide
• It includes various types of data collection and
analysis
• Early warning(EW) information can be collected by:
-Government or
-Non-governmental agencies like UN agencies,
international NGOs and local NGOs
-it can be collected on monthly, quarterly or
seasonally
 Early warning system…
• Most food security monitoring systems collate
data from the following four sources:
• Agricultural production such as crop production
and livestock farming
• Markets such as domestic and international trade
(import/export), prices of key staples and
livestock
• Vulnerable groups such as monitoring poverty
• Nutrition and health status of populations
Thank you!!