Validating Operational Food Insecurity Indicators Against a Dynamic Benchmark : Evidence from Mali

Christiaensen, Luc J. ; Boisvert, Richard N. ; Hoddinott, John

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADULT MALE;    AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;    AGRICULTURE;    BULLOCKS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2471
RP-ID  :  WPS2471

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors develop an explicitlyforward-looking indicator of food insecurity that takes intoaccount both current dietary inadequacy and vulnerability todietary inadequacy in the future. Application of thismeasure to data from northern Mali shows that neglecting thefuture dimension of food insecurity causes seriousunderestimation of food insecurity in this area. The authorsevaluate the performance, relative to their dynamicbemchmark, of three readily available alternativeindicators: an agricultural production index, a dietarydiversity index, and a coping strategy index. Despite theuneven performance of these indexes relative to theindividual components of the dynamic food insecurityindicator developed in the paper, they all demonstratestrong associations with that indicator. This is a promisingresult, given the urgent demand for reliable indicators offood insecurity.