Publications
Validity and reliability of food security measures
01/01/2014
This paper reviews some of the existing food security indicators, discussing the validity of the underlying concept and the expected reliability of measures under reasonably feasible conditions. The main objective of the paper is to raise awareness on existing trade-offs between different qualities of possible food security measurement tools that must be taken into account when such tools are proposed for practical application, especially for use within an international monitoring framework.
A reweighting approach to robust clustering
01/03/2017
An iteratively reweighted approach for robust clustering is presented in this work. The method is initialized with a very robust clustering partition based on an high trimming level. The initial partition is then refined to reduce the number of wrongly discarded observations and substantially increase efficiency.
Validity and cross-context equivalence of experience-based measures of food insecurity
01/03/2022
This article reviews evidence for validity and cross-context equivalence of experienced-based measures of food insecurity for estimating and monitoring prevalence of countries globally. The measures assess uncertainty, compromised dietary quality, eating less, and going hungry.
The sixth world food survey
01/01/1996
While the scope and content of the Sixth World Food Survey are broadly similar to its processor, the publication incorporates certain new features. The main conclusion of the survey is that in the developing countries as a whole, per caput dietary energy supplies have continued to increase so that during the two decades from 1970 the prevalence of food inadequacy declined.
Prevalence of Undernourishment
01/01/2023
The Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) is a national-level model-based indicator used to understand access to food in terms of dietary energy inadequacy. It measures the percentage of the population whose dietary energy intake is below the Minimum Dietary Energy Requirement (MDER). As one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Target 2.1 (End hunger, achieve food security, and improve nutrition), this indicator is produced yearly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Energy and protein requirements. Report of a joint FAO/WHO ad hoc expert committee
01/01/1973
Nutritional standards are used to assess the adequacy of diets and of national food supplies. They provide basic information for the establishment of national production and consumption policies and the planning of programmes aiming at an adequate and equitable distribution of food supplies.
Energy and protein requirements
01/01/1985
In common with each of its predecessors, the present report on energy and protein requirements attempts to move ahead and break new ground, presenting new concepts and identifying fresh issues. Perhaps one of the major changes that characterizes this report, in addition to the new approach to the derivation and description of energy requirements, is the recognition that the requirement estimates really relate more closely to individuals than to populations.
Modeling Food Insecurity in Bivariate and Regression Analyses
01/01/2016
These guidelines, prepared by the Voices of the Hungry (VoH) team, are intended to help in the preparation of proposals to the FAO VoH project for access to the Gallup World Poll (GWP) data.
Progress on the sustainable development goals. The gender snapshot 2023
02/01/2023
The Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023 provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and highlights prevailing trends, gaps, and recent setbacks on the journey towards achieving gender equality by 2030.
Food Insecurity Is Associated with Subjective Well-Being among Individuals from 138 Countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll
03/04/2017
Food insecurity is an aspect of living conditions that is particularly important for quality of life, health, and subjective well-being. The implementation of the 8-item Food Insecurity Experience Scale in 147 countries in the 2014 Gallup World Poll provided an unprecedented opportunity to understand the association of food insecurity with subjective well-being.
Access to food in 2020. Results of twenty national surveys using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
05/07/2021
This report presents the results of a food security assessment using FIES data collected via telephone for FAO in twenty food crisis countries. The surveys described in this report were conducted with the intention of providing the more accurate, timely, food insecurity assessments needed to inform the planning of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the twenty countries.
Access to food in 2021: filling data gaps. Results of twenty national surveys using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)
04/07/2022
This report presents the results of assessments based on the food insecurity experience scale (FIES), data collected by FAO in twenty least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) between November 2021 and February 2022. For nine of the countries (including eight SIDS), it was the first time FIES data had been collected.
The Power of Gender Equality for Food Security: Closing another gender data gap with a new quantitative measure
01/01/2020
In an effort to close the gender data gap, and support efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2 (End hunger) and 5 (Achieve gender equality), the World Food Programme (WFP) and Gallup Inc, with statistical contributions from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), have collaborated to develop the ‘Gender Equality for Food Security’ (GE4FS) measure.
A 5-year review of prevalence, temporal trends and characteristics of individuals experiencing moderate and severe food insecurity in 34 high income countries
09/11/2023
Due to the relatively low numbers of households in high income countries experiencing food insecurity most studies conflate the levels of severity, which masks between- and within-country differences. This study aims to describe the characteristics of individuals living in high income countries who were moderately or severely food insecure and investigates temporal trends in prevalence. It assesses these characteristics in comparison to those who were food secure.
Development, Validity, and Cross-Context Equivalence of the Child Food Insecurity Experiences Scale for Assessing Food Insecurity of School-Age Children and Adolescents
02/06/2022
Children ages 6 to 17 years can accurately assess their own food insecurity, whereas parents are inaccurate reporters of their children’s experiences of food insecurity. No globally applicable scale to assess the food insecurity of children has been developed and validated.
Introduction to item response theory applied to food security measurement - Basic concepts, parameters and statistics
01/07/2014
The single-parameter logistic item response theory (IRT) measurement model (commonly known as the Rasch model) provides a theoretical base and a set of statistical tools to assess the suitability of a set of survey items for scale construction, create a scale from the items, and compare performance of a scale in various populations and survey contexts. It has been used widely as the statistical basis for survey-based experiential food security measurement.
Better measurement of food insecurity in the context of enhancing nutrition
01/02/2014
In 1949, the right to adequate food was declared a basic human right. It was only during the Rome World Food Summit in 1996 that the discussion on the right to food was revitalized, and it took another eight years before the “Voluntary Guidelines to support the progressive realization of the right to adequate food in the context of national food security” were established in order to draw the world’s attention to this basic human right.
The impact of survey characteristics on the measurement of food consumption, Food Policy, Volume 72, 2017
13/09/2017
Surveys focused on food acquisition collect higher food quantities compared to those that target food consumption. Surveys based on recall interviews collect higher food quantities compared to those based on diaries, but the difference decreases with long reference periods.
National food security assessment through the analysis of food consumption data from Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys: The case of Brazil’s Pesquisa de Orçamento Familiares 2008/09, Food Policy, Volume 72, 2017
31/08/2017
This article focuses on the use of Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys (HCES) as a source of data to inform food security assessments. We argue that the quality and characteristics of food consumption data collected in HCES may limit the reliability of food security assessments, as parameters estimated from survey data may be biased due to systematic flaws in the collection of food data.