Part VII: Conclusions

Keynote speaker panel

Siddiqur R. Osmani,
Lisa C. Smith,
Anna Ferro-Luzzi
and John B. Mason

Panel response: Siddiqur R. Osmani

The purpose of this panel that takes place after three days of work during the Symposium is to highlight how we envisage the way forward. In my opinion, it is the conceptual clarification we must begin with first, because everything else will follow from the concept that we are trying to measure. Under the general rubric of food deprivation, I distinguish three concepts. The names I give to those concepts may be problematic and you may have other names, but as a start, I will use the names “hunger”, “undernourishment” and “food insecurity”. Each concept, in my view, has distinct but related but distinct contents.

The content of the first concept “hunger” is very basic: it is what I call the primordial sensation of not having enough food in your stomach. The sensation of hunger is very closely and most intimately related to the concept of food energy inadequacy, which is why I equate food energy inadequacy with the concept of hunger.

The second concept, “undernourishment”, incorporates hunger but goes beyond that: it is the contribution that food makes, or rather fails to make, to one’s nutritional status (the outcome). I call all of the components of food - energy, protein, fat and micronutrients - nourishment, and the lack of these is undernourishment.

The third concept is “food insecurity”, which incorporates both hunger and undernourishment but goes beyond that. The food insecurity concept is broader because it not only considers hunger and undernourishment in a chronic sense, but also considers occasional hunger and the risk of future hunger and undernourishment.

Now that we have established these concepts, going from the narrow (hunger) to the broad (food insecurity), the next question is what can FAO do to improve its contribution to enhancing our empirical knowledge about these concepts on a global level. The current FAO estimate of food energy deficiency is related to the first concept, hunger. It is wrong to call it undernourishment, and it is wrong to call it food insecurity. What FAO does is to address directly the question of hunger from the availability point of view, but it does not address the other two concepts.

There has been a debate about whether the FAO estimate addresses the issue of access or just focuses on availability. Some have doubted whether it is capable of indicating access at all, while others have argued that the FAO measure reflects access-adjusted availability, but I think this is not correct. In principle, this estimate is indeed attempting to look at access to food. In practice, what it does is to look at the mean energy availability and impose a distribution to that estimate; it then looks at the low end of the distribution to count the number of people who do not have access to enough food (energy) according to their requirements. This is how the FAO method attempts to capture access to food. But there is a qualification to this, and it is the following. If we continue to calculate food energy deficiency in the way that it is currently being done, say in the next World Food Survey, by updating the mean but keeping the coefficient of variation (CV) fixed, then in the end, the estimate is really only that of availability. In order to estimate access, the real objective, we must make some attempt to take into account changes in energy distribution that are surely taking place over time, otherwise we are not in reality measuring access. There is a schism here between what the measure tries to do and what in practice it ends up doing. In my opinion, there is a great need to come up with a better estimate of the CV. It may be that in the future, the entire FAO method is scrapped, and the household surveys that are being carried out increasingly in many countries will provide us with estimates of hunger. But in the meantime, the FAO method should be continued with more focus on improving the CV estimate.

How, then, can FAO address the concepts of undernourishment and food insecurity? The estimate of food energy deficiency, which measures hunger as an outcome, also can be used as an input into measuring undernourishment. In this case, however, we will also have to take into account protein and macronutrients in order to understand the contribution of food to nutritional status on a worldwide level.

The third concept is food insecurity, of which hunger and undernourishment are components. But here, we must also consider the vulnerability aspect, the risk of becoming food insecure in the future that is the central to this concept. FAO can do something to address this issue but not completely, because risk and vulnerability to food deprivation depend on many individual-level and household-level characteristics that FAO cannot possibly assess in the global context. FAO instead is capable of assessing certain broader determinants of food insecurity such as the geography and climate, for example that some regions are more prone to harvest fluctuations and changes in food availability because of climatic, geographical and technological factors. Vulnerability to food deprivation changes over time, and if FAO could provide information on whether certain regions were becoming more or less vulnerable, this would be extremely valuable, even if it does not provide a comprehensive picture of vulnerability.

In conclusion, I recommend that if FAO undertakes another World Food Survey or similar such exercise in the future, it should include information on the three concepts I have described today: hunger with emphasis on food availability and access, undernourishment with emphasis on proteins and micronutrients, and food insecurity with emphasis on the geographic coordinates of vulnerability. In this way, not only would FAO provide extremely useful information on the food situation in the world, but it would also help to educate policy-makers about three distinct but complementary concepts of food deprivation.

Panel response: Lisa C. Smith

First, I would like to revisit the issue that Jean-Pierre Habicht raised about whether the FAO measure of undernourishment is really being used by policy-makers for decision-making. I think that after hearing the speakers today, we have to agree that indeed it is being used for allocating development resources, and it is being used to monitor progress towards one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is being used, of course, to monitor progress towards the World Food Summit Target of halving the number of hungry by 2015, but it also has been used to project food insecurity in the future and in analyses of the causes of food insecurity. That the FAO measure of undernourishment is being used for decision-making is good news, since so much effort and resources are being put into it, but this means that we have an even greater responsibility to ensure that the estimates are as accurate as possible. I have heard that we should continue to use the FAO measure because it delivers estimates of hunger for all countries, and it is the only method currently available that can do that. I also heard that we should continue to use it because it has been used for so long, and it is the cheapest way of deriving these numbers. However, I do not believe that these should be the main criteria in choosing a measure of food insecurity. The main criterion should be that the measure provide at least a minimum level of accuracy. The main challenge to FAO, as I see it, is to convince users that the measure is accurate or, if it is not so, to take the necessary steps to improve it or adopt a better method.

There seems to be some objection among those in the FAO statistics division to the idea that data collected from household themselves are more reliable than those derived from national aggregate measures. Even when we take into account the various errors common to household surveys, they can most likely give us more accurate measures, and probably do, although this has not yet been proven. I was of the understanding that the main reason that the clever indirect way of estimating undernourishment based on dietary energy supplies from food balance sheets was devised was that data collected at the household level were not available. Now that that has changed, I think we need to take a second look. There are volumes of data now available from household surveys on anthropometry and poverty indicators, and we also have data from a few countries on dietary energy deficiency at the household level. These have yet to be used to test the reliability of the FAO measure, but they should be used for that purpose.

I would like to add something about the debate on energy requirements. I am pleased that we had time to discuss the issues on dietary energy requirements, and since I am not a nutritionist, I was not aware of the issue of the correlation between dietary energy intakes and dietary energy requirements. But from what I have heard, it is simply not practical to take this correlation into account in assessing dietary energy - correct me if I am wrong. We need a practical solution, and we need to agree on a dietary energy level that is appropriate. I do not see why it is not legitimate to use an absolute cutoff that represents the normative standard for different age groups at a given activity level. For example, it might be a good indication that someone is hungry if they do not eat enough to reach a minimum requirement for light activity? This is the kind of criterion that FAO is currently using. I think it would do a great service to us all if the Expert Consultation on Energy and Human Nutrition could address this in the applications manual that was mentioned by Eileen Kennedy. Can we find some energy requirements for light activity that can be applied with a reasonably low error? If so, let us all use them so that we can make comparisons across countries to have a fairly good idea of the extent of undernourishment worldwide and how it changes over time.

I would support the idea of a suite of indicators as put forward by Steven Devereux, but I would add an additional level. He mentioned national food availability, poverty, nutritional status and vulnerability, and I would insert a measure of the “extent of food energy deficiency” in between poverty and nutritional status. I think this is an important measure that we cannot obtain by only looking at poverty or nutritional status. This is basically a measure of poverty that is directly focused on food. In fact, it is much more straightforward to measure food energy deficiency than poverty if we are using household-level data, because of the difficulties of calculating appropriate poverty lines and making comparisons across countries that have different currencies and price levels.

I also have a comment on trends and levels. I strongly believe that it is just as important to monitor levels of food insecurity as trends. It is not the overall level that is so important - the 840 million or the 750 million - but the relative levels. It is very important that we know the location of the food insecure so that international development resources can be efficiently targeted to the most food insecure nations or populations.

I have five specific recommendations for a follow-up to this Symposium that pertain basically to meeting the challenge of convincing people that the current FAO measure is accurate.

First, simple validity checks should be undertaken by comparing the FAO measure with related measures based on data collected directly from households: the poverty and anthropometric data. For the anthropometric data, of course, analyses with measures of health environment and caring practice quality are necessary in order to interpret the results properly. It appears that this kind of exercise has been undertaken in preparation for the upcoming MDG meeting.

Second, I think it is very important to update studies that were undertaken in the 1980s, looking at the comparison of food balance sheet-estimated dietary energy supplies per capita with those derived from household surveys. Why are the differences so large? Or are they so large?

Third, I think it is very important to also update the studies on the size of the CV across populations. Past studies for deriving the CVs were undertaken for very small samples, using homogeneous populations in localized areas of countries. We need to carry out studies for entire nations, not just for small areas within countries. Some countries have now undertaken dietary intake studies as well as household expenditure surveys at a national level that can be used for this purpose. Isidoro David knows about some of these surveys.

Fourth, FAO, like many organizations, uses predicted estimates of their measures for countries for which data are not available. FAO uses the probability distribution method to do this and then assesses trends and compares indicators across broad regions. Other organizations never report to the public the predicted country-level estimates used to estimate regional and global trends - these remain hidden in their computers. Given the current uncertainty about the reliability of the FAO estimates at the country level, I would certainly consider following the example of other organizations.

Fifth, as I said, I would support the recommendation of a practical energy intake requirement that should be used in measuring food energy deficiency.

Panel response: Anna Ferro-Luzzi

After three days of discussion on the various ways to measure undernutrition and food insecurity, with some very strong critiscms but also many helpful suggestions, we should now be able to come up with reliable and feasible approaches. The first step should be the clarification of what is meant by the term “food insecurity” and to achieve a common terminology, understood on all levels, including politicians and policy-makers. Not that the latter are less capable of understanding, but they tend to use loaded words and terms, such as hunger. Words count, and I contend that the word “hunger” as currently used is misleading and creates confusion. It should be dropped for the lexicon of food security, or be confined to specific - and hopefully relatively rare - situ- ations. Food security is a complex condition that is read differently by experts with diverse backgrounds: economists consider poverty and food availability, agronomists look at food production, public health specialists mostly rely on indicators of physical and functional outcomes of food deprivation, and sociologists give priority to the socio-economic and cultural dimensions. This creates a multiplicity of efforts in diverse directions, which is costly and wasteful. In a world where resources are limited, the “short blanket” syndrome, with everyone pulling in a different direction, leads nowhere. What is urgently needed is to establish a dialogue and to define common priorities and targets. The first step therefore would be to identify and assign priority to the area where the diverse visions of food security overlap. Thus, in a world where people may be poor or unsure of their access to food or physically and functionally deteriorated by chronic undernutrition, the top priority should obviously go to those communities where the three conditions exist simultaneously and synergistically. This view does not deny that people that are poor or anxious about their next meals do not deserve attention; it just means that they are a diverse category and a second priority. With clearly defined categories and priorities, we would be able to establish the indicators needed to soundly enumerate the number of people that belong to each category of food insecurity. Among the various approaches discussed in this meeting for counting the food insecure, the FAO approach based on the food balance sheets has received much criticism. Nevertheless, because of its expediency in providing a first crude global appraisal, a consensus has emerged to retain it despite its limitations. However, it has been highlighted that there is space for improvement, and I would like to suggest two areas that deserve urgent attention. The first area is the food commodity list of the food balance sheets. The current one is obsolete and needs to be updated according to the evolution of the food supply. The second area is the conversion factors used to calculate the energy and nutrient content of the catego- ries of food commodities available for human consumption. These factors should not only be updated, and possibly diversified for the various countries or regions of the world reflecting the current mix of food products, but also should be made public. The transparency of the procedure of deriving these conversion factors and their sources will be a great improvement.

In closing my brief comment, I would like to say how pleased I am to have participated in this Symposium, and how stimulating it has been to exchange ideas with experts from many different disciplines in the attempt to arrive at a common understanding of the diverse aspects of food security. I truly hope that FAO will keep alive the opportunity for collaboration with this network in the future: we would all benefit.

Panel response: John B. Mason

I have no recommendations except to support what has been said and to add three brief points. I think this Symposium may well be seen as a landmark, at least in its affirmation or reaffirmation of some important factors. The recognition of the need to use multiple indicators, including anthropometry and qualitative measures, is important. We have noted, and should make very explicit, the recognition of the valuable contribution of FAO in generating their important estimate of dietary energy supply, and I cannot close without recognizing the heroic persistence of Mr Naiken in developing the method over these many years. We do not always recognize what a tremendous effort this has been. FAO has made an important contribution towards relating data very clearly and explicitly with decision-making needs. It is my opinion that FAO has done everyone a great service by opening this whole process to public scrutiny, and I am sure we all hope very much that the dialogue will continue in the years to come.

Lessons learned

Hartwig de Haen
Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Department (ES), FAO
Rome, Italy

As we come to the close of this Symposium, a number of things have been reconfirmed and many lessons learned. The first of these is that the fulfilment of FAO’s mandate to monitor progress in hunger reduction requires accurate, reliable and timely measures of the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition, food insecurity and vulnerability, and how these change overtime. What we do is extremely important, and even if we do not do it perfectly we should do it in the best way possible.

It was confirmed by your discussions that food insecurity is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. I think I can safely conclude that there is no perfect single measure that captures all aspects of food insecurity. I have heard the term “suite of indicators” being used in your discussions. This refers obviously to the necessity of describing the phenomenon we need to understand through the use of multiple indicators. We know that food insecurity is determined by food availability, access and utilization as well as by individual vulnerability, and each of these determinants may require a separate indicator. We have discussed several of these already: the FAO measure of food availability adjusted for access; poverty or other indicators of food access derived from household surveys; food consumption from individual dietary intake surveys; anthropometric indicators; and also self-assessed or “qualitative” indicators to measure hunger and vulnerability. You have indicated that a suite of indicators could help identify the relative importance of different determinants of food insecurity. This morning, I heard agreement that the data derived from these measurements should help us to understand why people are food insecure, although this is not the primary task. While the primary task is, of course, to measure the extent of food insecurity or hunger, identifying some of the main causes of hunger will enhance the likelihood that this information can lead to better policies.

A comprehensive discussion has taken place during this meeting of which indicators should be chosen. I can only submit to you several criteria to be kept in mind when considering which indicators to use. The first criterion is how well the indicator measures what it claims to measure, that is, its validity and reliability. Another consideration is how helpful the indicator is in identifying the causes of food insecurity. Also important is how quickly the information becomes available to policy-makers and those who work on hunger-related issues. It is clear that timeliness is essential, especially in the assessment of emergency situations. Necessary action to tackle problems of food insecurity may be delayed if we do not relay the information to policy-makers in time. Another vital consideration is whether the indicator measures and differentiates transitory and chronic food insecurity. And of course, one cannot ignore the cost of obtaining, processing and disseminating the information. Collection costs in terms of time, equipment and training of personnel must be acknowledged, and countries and agencies must determine whether the benefits of using a particular indicator are worth the costs.

Lastly, we must consider the link between the measures or indicators provided to policy-makers and the decisions taken on the basis of that information. One aspect of this problem is the level at which the indicators are collected (internationally, regionally, nationally or subnationally). The FAO indicator of chronic undernourishment cannot be disaggregated to subnational levels, so for that reason alone, additional indicators are necessary for policy-making at these levels. Another very important issue that has been discussed widely during the Symposium is whether we should make more use of trends over time and less on absolute numbers when measuring progress. The comparison of trends is very important across countries but is equally important for monitoring change over time within individual countries. A related issue is the frequency with which the indicators are released and the appropriate time intervals for data collection.

This Symposium has been instrumental in suggesting how all of us - researchers, international organizations and government officials alike - can proceed to improve the measurements and the methodologies. It has specific implications for the work we do at FAO. We began in 1999 to issue an annual report, The State of Food Insecurity, in close collaboration with FIVIMS, so the task of collecting and reporting multiple indicators is already under way. We have also used this framework in all reports to the Committee on World Food Security. However, it has been made clear that we must try to better explain the methodology, the database and the assumptions underlying our undernourishment measures. In light of your suggestions here, we may also need to consider replacing the term “undernourishment” with a more precise term of what we are measuring, such as “food energy deficiency”. We have been made aware of the importance of incorporating data on nutritional outcomes and related concepts into our databases, and we must learn how to use the additional information to improve our indicator. The data on micro-nutrients and protein, and the measurements of intakes of these nutrients are other areas mentioned for further attention by FAO. We must improve our measures of access to food: this means collecting and analysing more complete information on the distribution of household income, assets and agricultural landholdings, an area that we have not sufficiently covered up to now.

It was suggested in the course of your discussions that we initiate a working group that should strive to improve our understanding of the concepts of risk and vulnerability, and to develop indicators that capture these concepts, including further development of “qualitative” measures of hunger, also referred to as “experience-based assessment”, “direct assessment” or “self-assessment”.

Currently, the most of the information known about food insecurity is compiled and used by international agencies, but developing countries need to take ownership and begin to develop the capacity to compile and use their own data. Through FIVIMS, we will continue to extend support to national governments to generate their own data on indicators for use in national-level policy and decision-making.

In conclusion, what we have discussed together in these three days is just the beginning of a process. We at FAO must continue our scientific work in partnership with you and other experts. Therefore, we will be drawing on you and your expertise again, and I invite you all also to stay in contact with us so that we can continue our collaboration for improving measures of food insecurity.

I want to express my explicit thanks to the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee for their effort, to the Government of The Netherlands for their support of this Symposium, and of course to all of you for your fruitful and active discussion of these important issues and suggestions for further work.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this Symposium is closed.

Appendices

Symposium Programme

Wednesday June 26, 2002

Thursday June 27, 2002

Session 1: Statistical Issues Related to Improving Estimates of Distributions for Any of the Five Methods

Chair: H. KASNAKOGLU

Session 2: Innovative Methods to Measure Food Security

Chair: M. VILLARREAL

Session 3: Food Security Information Systems Using Combined Methods

Chair: M. IMMINK

Session 4: Food Security Measurement - Discrepancies and Defi nitions

Chair: B. BURLINGAME

Session 5: Experiences in Using Qualitative Methods for Measuring Food Security

Chair: D. WILCOCK

Friday June 28, 2002

Scientific Advisory Committee

Marie-Claude Dop, Researcher, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France Jean-Pierre Habicht, Professor, Cornell University, USA

Siddiqur R. Osmani, Professor, University of Ulster, UK

Jean Pennington, Scientist, National Institutes of Health, USA

Kathy Radimer, Nutritional Epidemiologist, National Center for Health Statistics, USA Soekirman, Professor, Bogor Agriculture University, Indonesia

Walter Willett, Professor, Harvard University, USA Pattanee Winichagoon, Professor, Mahidol University, Thailand

Local Organizing Committee

William H. Meyers, Director, ESA, Chair
Terri Ballard, Consultant, ESA
Sumiter Broca, Economist, ESAE
Barbara Burlingame, Senior Nutrition Officer, ESNA
Dorjee Kinlay, Economist, ESAF
Jorge Mernies, Chief, ESSA
Harriet Neuling, Consultant, ESA
Terri Raney, Senior Economist, ESAC
Ricardo Sibrian, Statistician, ESSA
David Wilcock, FIVIMS Coordinator, FAO-ESD

List of Participants

Dede Aduayom
Senior Research Assistant, IFPRI
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
USA
[email protected]

Giuseppe Arbia
Professor
Università “G. D’Annunzio”
Chieti-Pescara
Viale Pindaro, 42
65127 Pescara, Italy
[email protected]

Terri Ballard
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Pascal Bernardoni
Project Manager
FAO - Emergency Coordination Office,
Zarka Marinovica 2
11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
[email protected]

Rita Bhatia
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Lalita Bhattacharjee
Nutrition Consultant
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
39 Phra Atit Road
Bangkok 10200,
Thailand
[email protected]

Martin W. Bloem
Regional Director
Helen Keller International
23A-B Jl. Bungur Dalam
Jakarta, Indonesia
[email protected]

Patricia Bonnard
Agriculture and Food Security Specialist, FANTA
Project/AED
1825 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20009-5721, USA
[email protected]

Sumiter Broca
Economist, ESAE
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Lynn Brown
Rural Development Specialist
ARD, MSN: MC5.510
The World Bank
1818 H St, NW
Washington, DC 20433, USA
[email protected]

Barbara Burlingame
Senior Nutrition Officer, ESNA
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Pornprome Chairidchai
Permanent Representation of Thailand to FAO
Rome, Italy

Annalisa Conte
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Genevieve Coullet
Food Security Officer, ESAF
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Andre Croppenstedt
Economist, ESAC
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Li Dan
Associate Professor
National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control
and Prevention
27 Nanwei Road, Beijing
100050, P.R.China
[email protected]

Isidoro David
Former Chief Statistician
Asian Development Bank
16 Whitefield
White Plains Quezon City
Metro Manila
Philippines
[email protected]

Jashinta D’Costa
Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Officer
FAO Yugoslavia
6104 63rd Avenue
Riverdale, MD 20737, USA
[email protected]

J. Paul Des Rosiers
Environment Officer
U.S. Agency for international Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20523, USA
[email protected]

Frederic Deve
ROA Project
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Stephen Devereux
Professor
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK
[email protected]

Marie-Claude Dop
Nutrition Officer, ESNA
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Shyam S. Dubey
I.C.A.S. Deputy Secretary
Ministry of Food
260, Krishi Bhawan
New Delhi, India

Hartwig de Haen
Assistant Director-General
Economic and Social Department
FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Mercedes de Onis
Medical Officer
World Health Organization for
Health and Development
20 Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27,
Switzerland
[email protected]

Jeanne H.M. de Vries
Wageningen University
Agrotechnology and Food Science
Human Nutrition & Epidemiology
PO Box 812
6700 EV Wageningen,
The Netherlands
[email protected]

Luis Fajardo
Universidad Javeriana
Transversal 12 # 124 - 51
Apartamento 607
Bogotá, Colombia
[email protected]

Anna Ferro-Luzzi
INRAN-National Institute for Food and
Nutrition Research
Via Ardeatina 546
00179 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Edward Frongillo
Associate Professor
Division of Nutritional Sciences
B17 Savage Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
14853-6301, USA
[email protected]

Ugo Gentilini
INTERFAIS WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Gerard Gill
Research Associate
Overseas Development Institute
5 Baronald Gate
Glasgow G12 0JS,
UK
[email protected]

Jean Gladwin
Health Services Research
Dept. of Public Health and Policy
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
WC 1E 7HT, UK
[email protected]

Sofia Guiomar
Doctoral Researcher
University of Warwick, UK/
Instituto de Medicina Preventiva
Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa
RUA PROF MOTA PINTO,
206-6 Esq
4100-353 Porto, Portugal
[email protected]
[email protected]

Ali Arslan Gürkan
Chief, ESCB
Commodities and Trade Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Jean-Pierre Habicht
Professor of Nutritional Epidemiology
Division of Nutritional Sciences
Savage Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853,
USA
[email protected]

Simon Hales
Research Fellow
Department of Public Health
Wellington School of Medicine
and Health Sciences
University of Otago
PO Box 7343
Wellington South, New Zealand
[email protected]

Tim Harris
Statistics Department
Department for International Development
1 Palace Street, London,
SW1E 5HE, UK
[email protected]

Rebecca Hopper
US Mission to the UN Agencies
1822 Hayes St. NE, Apt. 7
Minneapolis, MN 55418,
USA
[email protected]

Maarten Immink
FIVIMS Coordinator a.i.,
ESDG/FIVIMS Secretariat
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and
Mapping System
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
Maarten.Immink @fao.org

Robin Jackson
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Krista Jacobs
PhD Candidate, University of California, Davis
4735 Cowell Blvd. Apt. 1
Davis, CA 95616, USA
[email protected]

Abas Basuni Jahari
Researcher
Center for Research and Development
JI. DR Sumeru 63
Bogor 16112,
Indonesia
[email protected]

Helen Jensen
Professor,
Dept. of Economics/CARD
578 Heady Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1070, USA
[email protected]

Stanley R. Johnson
Vice-Provost for Extension
2150 Beardshear Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011, USA
[email protected]

Anne Joseph
Commission Européenne
Europeaid Office de Coopéeration
Unité Sécurité Alimentaire
J54-8/73
B-1049
Bruxelles, Belgique
[email protected]

Allan Jury
Chief, Policy Service
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68/70, Parco de’ Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

E. Zehra Kasnakoglu
Professor, Middle East Technical University
Ankara, Turkey
[email protected]

Haluk Kasnakoglu
Director, ESS
Statistics Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Eileen Kennedy
Global Executive Director
International Life Sciences Institute
One Thomas Circle, N.W., 9^th floor
Washington, DC 2005-5802,
USA
[email protected]

Gina Kennedy
Nutrition Consultant
Via San Giovanni in Laterano, 22
00184 Rome, Italy
Tel: (39) 06-7045-3336
[email protected]

Sean Kennedy
Technical Advisor
Human Health Nutrition
IFAD - Via del Serafico, 107
00142 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Werner Kiene
WFP Representative to the Bretton Woods
Institutions
2175 K Street, NW; Suite 350
Washington, DC 2043, USA
[email protected]

Lynnda Kiess
Regional Advisor
Helen Keller Inernational
23A-B JI. Bungur Dalam
Jakarta, Indonesia
[email protected]

Dorjee Kinlay
Economist, ESAF
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Stephan Klasen
Professor of Economics
University of Munich
Ludwigstrasse 28, Rg.
80539 München, Germany
[email protected]

Betsey Kuhn
Director of the Food and Rural Economics Division
USDA/Economic Research Service
1800 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036, USA
[email protected]

Harriet Kuhnlein
Professor of Human Nutrition
Acting Director/Founding
Director
Centre of Indigenous Peoples’
Nutrition and Environment (CINE)
McGill University, Macdonald Campus
21, 111 Lakeshore
Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec,
Canada H9X3V9
[email protected]

David P. Lambert
Alternate Permanent Representative Counselor
for Agricultural Affairs
United States Mission to the UN Agencies for
Food and Agriculture
Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Rachel Lambert
Food Security Advisor
Rural Livelihoods Department
DFID
1Palace Street
London SW1E 5HE, UK
[email protected]

Sergio Lence
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-1070,
USA [email protected]

Lauren Lissner
Professor
Department of Community Medicine
Göteborg University
Vasa Hospital, Pavillon 11,
Level 3
411 33 Göteborg, Sweden
[email protected]

Thomas Marchione
Nutrition Advisor and Evaluation Officer
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20523,
USA
[email protected]

Jeffrey Marzilli
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70, Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy,
[email protected]

John B. Mason
Professor
Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical
Medicine
Community Health Sciences
1440 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70112,
USA
[email protected]

Peter Matlon
Deputy Director
The Rockefeller Foundation
420 5th Ave., New York, NY 10018, USA,
[email protected]

Irela Mazar
Nutrition Officer, ESN
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Ian McFarlane
Research Student
The University of Reading,
Whiteknights,
PO Box 217,
Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, UK
[email protected]

Jorge Mernies
Chief, ESSA
Statistics Division, FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

William H. Meyers
(Former Director, ESA, FAO)
Professor
269 Heady Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011, USA
[email protected]

Naoki Minamiguchi
Vulnerability Analysis Coordinator, ESCG
Commodities and Trade Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Regina Moench-Pfanner
Regional Coordinator
Helen Keller International
23A-B JI. Bungur dalam
Jakarta, Indonesia
[email protected]

Sylvie Montembault
Food Security Department
Action contre la faim
4, Rue Niepce
75014 Paris, France
[email protected]

Gladys Moreno Garcia
Statistician, ESSB
Statistics Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Altrena G. Mukuria
Nutrition Specialist
Macro International Inc.
11785 Beltsville Drive
Calverton, MD 20705, USA
[email protected]

Philip Musgrove
Lead Economist,
Health, Nutrition and Population
The World Bank
Room G-7-015
1818 H Street NW,
Washington, DC 20433, USA
[email protected]

Loganaden Naiken
(Former Chief, ESSA, FAO)
10 Volcy Goupille street, Beau Bassin
Mauritius
[email protected]

Biplab Kanti Nandi
Senior Food and Nutrition Officer
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
39 Phra Atit Road
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
[email protected]

Guy Nantel
Senior Officer, ESNA
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Pratap Narain
Senior Officer, ESSA
Statistics Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Peggy Nelson
Chief, Office of Development Activities
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici,
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Harriet Neuling
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Chizuru Nishida
Technical Officer
Department of Nutrition for Health and
Development
World Health Organization
20 Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27,
Switzerland
[email protected]

Mark Nord
Team Leader for Food Stamp and Food Security
Research
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Economic Research Service
1800 M St NW, Room 2180
Washington, DC 20036-5831, USA
[email protected]

Maarten Nubé
Nutritionist
Centre for World Food Studies (SOW-VU), Vrije
Universiteit
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
[email protected]

Kate Ogden
Food Security Department
Action Contre la Faim
4, Rue Niepce
75014 Paris, France
[email protected]

Siddiqur R. Osmani
Professor
School of Economics and Politics
University of Ulster at Jordanstown
Shore Road, Newtownabbey
Co. Antrim BT37 0QB,
UK
[email protected]

John Owuor
National FIVIMS Coordinator
Office of the President/ALRMP
KICC 13thFloor (Room 1303)
PO Box 53547, GPO
Nairobi, Kenya
[email protected]

Kofi Owusu-Tieku
Strategic Planner
Strategy and Policy Division
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola 68/70
Parco de Medici,
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Suleka Patel
World Bank
Office MC2-759
MSN MC2.208
1818 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20433, USA
[email protected]

Jean Pennington
Research Nutritionist
Division of Nutrition Research Coordination
National Institutes of Health
6707 Democracy Boulevard, Room 629
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-5461,
USA
[email protected]

Cristiano Pesaresi
Assistant Researcher
INRAN-National Institute for Food and Nutrition
Research
Via Ardeatina 546
00179 Roma, Italy
[email protected]

Noreen Prendiville
Project Coordinator
FAO
c/o FAO Kenya
Somalia
[email protected]

Sonya Rabeneck
Technical Secretary
UN Standing Committee on Nutrition
20 Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland
[email protected]

Kathy Radimer
Nutritional Epidemiologist
National Center for Health Statistics
6525 Belcrest Rd, Room 1000
Hyattsville MD 20782, USA
[email protected]

Seevalingum Ramasawmy
Statistician, ESSA
Statistics Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Parvathy Ramaswami
Office of Development Activities (ODA)
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Terri Raney
Senior Economist, ESAC
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Stacey Rosen
Economist, USDA
USDA/ERS/MTED/EAME
1800 M Street, NW
Room 5169N
Washington, DC 20036, USA
[email protected]

Salek Ahmed
Health Research Coordinator
UBINIG
5/3 Barabo, Mahanpur,
Ringroad Shamoli
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
[email protected]

Yukako Sato
Programme Officer
Office of Development Activities (ODA)
WFP
Via Cesare Guilio Viola, 68/70
Parco de’ Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Martina Schmid
Hofenacker 64,
8262 Ramsen,
Switzerland [email protected]

Josef Schmidhuber
Senior Economist, ESD
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and
Mapping System
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Hans Schöneberger
Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and
Development
Germany

John Seaman
Development Director Food Security & Livelihoods
Unit
Save the Children
17, Grove Lane
London SE5 8RD,
UK
[email protected]

Benjamin Senauer
Professor
Department of Applied Economics
University of Minnesota
St. Paul, MN 55108,
USA
[email protected]

Lluis Serra-Majem
Professor of Public Health and Chairman,
Dept. of Clinical Sciences
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
PO Box 550
35080 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
[email protected]

Shala Shapouri
Senior Economist
USDA
1800 M Street, NW
USDA/ERS, Room 5169N
Washington, DC 20036, USA
[email protected]

Prakash Shetty
Chief, ESNA
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Flora Sibanda-Mulder
WFP/UNICEF Partnership Coordinator School
Feeding Unit
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Ricardo Sibrian
Statistician, ESSA
Statistics Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

George Simon
Chief INTERFAIS
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Jakob Skoet
Economist, ESAF
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Lisa C. Smith
Research Fellow
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K. Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20006-1002,
USA
[email protected]

Mark Smulders
Senior Economist, ESAF
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Soekirman
Prof.of Nutrition/Director Center for Food and
Nutrition Policy Study
Bogor Agriculture University
Jl.Siaga Raya, Bappenas No.A-1,
Pejaten Barat, Jakarta 12510, Indonesia
[email protected]

Dianne Spearman
Director, Strategy and Policy Division
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Arun Kumar Srivastava
Joint Director
Indian Agricultural Statistics
Research Institute
Library Avenue,
New Delhi 110012, India
[email protected]

Jane Stanley
Program Specialist
U.S. Mission to the FAO agencies
Italy
[email protected]

Caroline Svedberg-Wibling
Translator
Säertäppan 1, 3 tr
S-113 30 Stockholm, Sweden
[email protected]

Peter Svedberg
Professor
Institute for International Economic Studies
University of Stockholm
S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
[email protected]

Kiyoshi Taniguchi
APO, ESAE
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Slobodanka Teodosijevic
ESAC
Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis
Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Andrew Thorne Lyman
Public Nutrition Officer, Strategy and Policy WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Alison Tierney
Consultant Anthropologist
Overseas Development Institute
70, Queens Park Rise, Brighton, BN2 9ZF, UK
[email protected]

Charisse Tillmann
Assessment Officer, OHA
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Antonia Trichopoulou
Professor, University of Athens
Dept. of Hygiene and Epidemiology
Medical School, University of Athens
75 Mikras Asias Str,
Athens 11527, Greece
[email protected]

Francoise Trine
Country Support Officer, ESDG
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and
Mapping System
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Kraisid Tontisirin
Director, ESN
Food and Nutrition Division, FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Marti J. Van Liere
Nutrition Advisor
Royal Tropical Institute
Postbus 95001
1090 HA Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
[email protected]

Christine Van Nieuwenhuyse
WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Jacques Vercueil
(Former Director, ESA, FAO)
2 bis Impasse du Lido
13012 Marseilles,
France
[email protected]

René Verduijn
Consultant, ESDG
Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and
Mapping System
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Marcela Villarreal
Chief, SDWP
Population and Development Service
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Patrick Webb
Professor
Tufts University
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
126 Curtis Street
Medford,
MA 02155,
USA
[email protected]

Hans-Peter Weikard
Wageningen University
Department of Social Sciences
Hollandseweg
NG - 6706 KN Wageningen,
The Netherlands
[email protected]

Robert Weisell
Nutrition Officer, ESNA
Food and Nutrition Division
FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

William Whelan
U.S. Agency for International Development
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20523, USA
[email protected]

Sonali Wickrema
Strategic Planning Service, WFP
Via Cesare Giulio Viola, 68/70
Parco dé Medici
00148 Rome, Italy
[email protected]

Doris Wiesmann
Research Fellow
Center for Development Research (ZEF)
Department of Economic and Technological
Change
Walter-Flex-Str. 3
53113 Bonn, Germany
[email protected]

David Wilcock
(Former Coordinator, FIVIMS, FAO)
Passwangstrasse 2
4059-CH
Basel, Switzerland [email protected]
Walter Willett
Professor
Harvard School of Public Health
651 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115, USA
[email protected]

Pattanee Winichagoon
Associate Professor
Head, Community Nutrition Division
Institute of Nutrition
Mahidol University (INMU)
Salaya, Nakhon Pathom 73170,
Thailand [email protected]

Tiba Zoltan
Phd Candidate
School of Oriental and African Studies London,
1044 Budapest, Vaci ut 119, Hungary [email protected]

Glossary^[30]

ANTHROPOMETRY

The use of human body measurements to obtain information about nutritional status.

BODY MASS INDEX (BMI)

A ratio of weight for height often used to estimate body fat. It is obtained by dividing the weight (in kilograms) by the square of the height (in metres). BMI is not appropriate for assessment of growing children, frail and sedentary elderly individuals, or women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

DEGREE OF FOOD DEPRIVATION

A measure of the overall food insecurity situation in a country, based on a classification system that combines prevalence of undernourishment, i.e. proportion of the total population suffering from dietary energy deficit, and depth of undernourishment, i.e. magnitude of the dietary energy deficit of the undernourished population.

DIETARY ENERGY DEFICIT

The difference between the average daily dietary energy intake of an undernourished population and its average minimum energy requirement.

DIETARY ENERGY INTAKE

The energy content of food consumed.

DIETARY ENERGY REQUIREMENT

The amount of dietary energy required by an individual to maintain body functions, health and normal activity.

DIETARY ENERGY SUPPLY

Food available for human consumption, expressed in kilocalories per person per day (kcal/person/day). At country level, it is calculated as the food remaining for human use after deduction of all non-food consumption (exports, animal feed, industrial use, seed and wastage).

FOOD INSECURITY

A situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life. It may be caused by the unavailability of food, insufficient purchasing power, inappropriate distribution, or inadequate use of food at the household level. Food insecurity, poor conditions of health and sanitation, and inappropriate care and feeding practices are the major causes of poor nutritional status. Food insecurity may be chronic, seasonal or transitory.

FOOD SECURITY

A situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

KILOCALORIE (KCAL)

A unit of measurement of energy. One kilocalorie equals 1 000 calories. In the International System of Units (ISU), the universal unit of energy is the joule (J). One kilocalorie = 4.184 kilojoules (kJ).

MACRONUTRIENTS

In this document, the proteins, carbohydrates and fats that are required by the body in large amounts and, available to be used for energy. They are measured in grams.

MALNUTRITION

An abnormal physiological condition caused by deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in energy, protein and/or other nutrients.

Shetty 2002²: Malnutrition arises from deficiencies of specific nutrients or from diets based on wrong kinds or proportions of foods. Goitre, scurvy, anaemia and xeroph-thalmia are forms of malnutrition caused by inadequate intake of iodine, vitamin C, iron and vitamin A respectively.

² P. Shetty. 2002. Measures of nutritional status from anthropometric survey data.

Keynote paper for the International Scientific Symposium on Measurement and Assessment of Food Deprivation and Undernutrition. FAO, June 26-28. Rome.

MICRONUTRIENTS

The vitamins, minerals and certain other substances that are required by the body in small amounts. They are measured in milligrams or micrograms.

MINIMUM DIETARY ENERGY REQUIREMENT

In a specified age/sex category, the amount of dietary energy per person that is considered adequate to meet the energy needs for light activity and good health. For an entire population, the minimum energy requirement is the weighted average of the minimum energy requirements of the different age/sex groups in the population. It is expressed as kilocalories per person per day.

NUTRITIONAL STATUS

The physiological state of an individual that results from the relationship between nutrient intake and requirements and from the body’s ability to digest, absorb and use these nutrients.

OVERNOURISHMENT

Food intake that is in excess of dietary energy requirements continuously.

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY

Body weight that is above normal as a result of an excessive accumulation of fat. It is usually a manifestation of overnourishment. Overweight is defined here as BMI >25-30 and obesity as BMI >30.

STUNTING

Low height for age, reflecting a sustained past episode or episodes of undernutrition.

UNDERNOURISHMENT

Food intake that is insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements continuously.

UNDERNUTRITION

The result of undernourishment, poor absorption and/or poor biological use of nutrients consumed.

Shetty 2002^[31]: Undernutrition is defined as having a dietary energy intake below the minimum requirement level to maintain the balance between actual energy intake and acceptable levels of energy expenditure. This must take into account additional needs for growth in children and also for pregnant and lactating women to maintain appropriate weight gain associated with adequate foetal growth in pregnancy and to sustain sufficient milk production during lactation (FAO/WHO/UNU, 1985). In the Shetty paper, the term “undernutrition” was used in the broader sense, referring to any physical condition implying ill-health or the inability to maintain adequate growth, appropriate body weight and body composition or to sustain acceptable levels of economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities brought about by an inadequacy in food, both in quantity and in quality. This definition thus includes both undernutrition and specific micronu-trient deficiencies.

UNDERWEIGHT

Low weight for age in children and BMI <18.5 in adults, reflecting a current condition resulting from inadequate food intake, past episodes of undernutrition or poor health conditions.

VULNERABILITY

The presence of factors that place people at risk of becoming food insecure or malnourished, including those factors that affect their ability to cope.

VULNERABLE GROUP

A group of people with common characteristics, a high proportion of whom are food insecure or at risk of becoming food insecure.

WASTING

Low weight for height, generally the result of weight loss associated with a recent period of starvation or disease.