GUIDANCE NOTE

Calculation of household food security outcome indicators

(WFP Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping Unit, Afghanistan

December 2012)

Household food security based on data NRVA/ALCS 2014, National Nutrition Survey 2013 and
FSAC-led Seasonal FS Assessments 2013-2015 is analyzed using methodology guided in the
second edition Emergency Food Security Assessment Handbook (EFSA, WFP, 2009) and first
edition Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA, WFP, 2009). The
analysis is based on the Food and Nutrition Security Conceptual Framework which considers
food availability, food access and utilization as core pillars of food security and link these to
households’ livelihood strategies and assets.

The analysis used 3 measures as proxy indicators to assess household food security which are
Food Consumption Score (FCS), Reduced CSI, Household Hunger Scale (HHS). In addition, ALCS
2014 has also used Dietary Diversity (DD) based on the food consumption module.

1. Food Consumption Score (FSC)

The FCS is considered as a proxy indicator of current food security. FCS is a composite score
based on dietary frequency, food frequency and relative nutrition importance of different
food groups.

Dietary diversity is the number of individual foods or food groups consumed over the past
seven days. Food frequency is the number of days (in the past 7 days) that a specific food item
has been consumed by a household. Household food consumption is the consumption pattern
(frequency * diversity) of households over the past seven days.

Calculation of FCS and household food consumption groups

1. Using standard 7-day food frequency data, group all the food items into nine specific
food groups.
2. Sum all the consumption frequencies of food items of the same group, and recode the
value of each group above 7 as 7.
3. Multiply the value obtained for each food group by its weight and create new
weighted food group scores.
4. Sum the weighed food group scores, thus, creating the food consumption score (FCS).
The most diversified and best consumption with maximal FCS at 112 means that all
food groups are eaten 7 days a week.
 5. Using the appropriate thresholds, recode the variable food consumption score, from a
continuous variable to a categorical variable, to calculate the percentage of
households of poor, borderline and acceptable food consumption.

Food Items, Food Group and Weight applied for Afghanistan:

No Food groups Weight
1 Cereals (bread, rice, maize, barley) and tubers
2
(potatoes, sweet potatoes)
Pulses and nuts (beans, lentils, peas, peanuts,
2 3
etc.)
3 Vegetables 1
4 Fruits 1
5 Meat and fish (all types) 4
Dairy products (milk, yoghurt, cheese, other
6 4
milk’s products)
7 Sugar, honey 0.5
8 Oil, fat, butter 0.5

Food Consumption Score thresholds

The FCS is calculated based on the past 7-day food consumption recall for the household and classified
into three categories: poor consumption (FCS = 1.0 to 28); borderline (FCS = 28.1 to 42); and acceptable
consumption (FCS = >42.0). The FCS is a weighted sum of food groups. The score for each food group is
calculated by multiplying the number of days the commodity was consumed and its relative weight.

The following thresholds of FSC are used to categorize households into three food consumption
groups – Poor, Borderline and Acceptable:

Food Food Description

consumption Consumption
groups Score

Poor 1-28 An expected consumption of staple 7 days, vegetables 5-

6 days, sugar 3-4 days, oil/fat 1 day a week, while animal
proteins are totally absent

Borderline 28.1 -42 An expected consumption of staple 7 days, vegetables 6-

7 days, sugar 3-4 days, oil/fat 3 days,
meat/fish/egg/pulses 1-2 days a week, while dairy
products are totally absent

Acceptable > 42 As defined for the borderline group with more number of
days a week eating meat, fish, egg, oil, and
complemented by other foods such as pulses, fruits, milk
2. Reduced Coping Strategy Index (RCSI)

When livelihoods are negatively affected by a shock /crisis, households may adopt various
mechanisms (strategies) which are not adopted in a normal day-to-day life, to cope with
reduced or declining access to food.

Coping Strategy Index (CSI) is often used as a proxy indicator of household food insecurity. CSI is
based on a list of behaviors (coping strategies). CSI combines: (i) the frequency of each strategy
(how many times each strategy was adopted?); and (ii) their (severity) (how serious is each
strategy?) for households reporting food consumption problems. Higher CSI indicates a worse
food security situation and vice versa. CSI is a particularly powerful tool for monitoring the
same households or population over time. There are two types: “Full CSI” and “Reduced CSI”.

In this IPC, RCSI is used. RCSI is based on the same short list of 5 food-related coping strategies
applied during the past 7 days prior to the SFSA, and the same severity weights. It is very useful
for comparing across regions and countries, or across income/livelihood groups, because it
focuses on the same set of behaviors. The maximal RSCI is 56 during the past 7 days prior to the
SFSA (i.e. all 5 strategies are applied every day). There are no universal thresholds for RCSI. But
the higher the RCSI, the more severe the coping is applied by a household.

Table below is an example of RCSI of this analysis, with RCSI at 27.

Coping Strategies Raw score Universal Weighted Score =

Severity Frequency x Weight
Weight
1. Rely on less preferred and less expensive foods 5 1 5
2. Borrow food or rely on help from friends or 2 2 4
relatives
3. Limit portion size at mealtime 7 1 7
4. Restrict consumption by adults in order for small 2 3 6
children to eat
5. Reduce number of meals eaten in a day 5 1 5
Total Reduced CSI Sum down the total for 27
each individual strategy

Thresholds used to rank coping severity:

As mentioned above, Coping Strategy Index (CSI) is often used as a proxy indicator of household food
insecurity. Households were asked about how often they used a set of five short-term food based
coping strategies in situations in which they did not have enough food, or money to buy food, during the
one-week period prior to interview. The information is combined into the CSI which is a score assigned
to a household that represents the frequency and severity of coping strategies employed. First, each of
the five strategies is assigned a standard weight based on its severity. These weights are: Relying on less
preferred and less expensive foods (=1.0); Limiting portion size at meal times (=1.0); Reducing the
number of meals eaten in a day (=1.0); Borrow food or rely on help from relatives or friends (=2.0);
Restricting consumption by adults for small children to eat (=3.0). Household CSI scores are then
determined by multiplying the number of days in the past week each strategy was employed by its
corresponding severity weight, and then summing together the totals.

Based on the country’s context, the total CSI score is the basis to determine and classify the level of
coping: into three categories: No or low coping (CSI= 0-3), medium (CSI = 4-9, high coping (CSI ≥10).

3. Household Hunger Scale (HHS)

HHS is a proxy of food access. The HHS is built around 3 questions about perceptions of a
household on varying degrees of hunger by the number of times a household has experienced
hunger within past 30 days prior to the survey.

Three questions are:

1. In the past 30 days, was there ever no food of any kind to eat in your house because of
lack of resources to get food?
2. In the past 30 days, did you or any household member go to sleep at night hungry
because there was not enough food?
3. In the past 30 days did you or any household member go a whole day and night without
eating anything at all because there was not enough food?

Three scoring options for scoring the response to each question are:
Never (0 times) =0 score
Rarely/ Sometimes (1-10 times) = 1 score
Often (more than 10 times) =2 scores
HHS = Score of response 1+ Score of response 2 + Score response 3. The total HHS ranges from
0 to maximum 6 score.

The following thresholds of HHS are used to categorize households into three hunger groups
– None or light, Moderate and Severe:

0-1 score: None or light hunger

2-3 scores: Moderate hunger
4-6 scores: Severe hunger

4. Dietary Diversity (DD):

Even among households who satisfy their calorie requirements, those who consume a non-diversified,
unbalanced and unhealthy diet, can be classified as food insecure. Hungry people spend a larger share,
if not all, of their food budget on macronutrient dense staples, such as wheat and rice, which provide
cheap and accessible sources of calories. In doing so, they compromise more nutritious items and their
diet lacks adequate proteins and micro-nutrients.
The Diet Diversity Score measures how many food groups (out of 8) are consumed during a week
reporting period. Households that over a seven day period consumed foods from four or fewer food
groups out of eight are classified as having low dietary diversity.