Food security assessments describe the food security status of various segments of a population over various parts of a country or region and analyses the underlying causes of vulnerability. They are done by the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping unit in Country Offices, often in collaboration with Government and other UN organisations.
The assessments are undertaken regularly in all crisis-prone food insecure countries to:
Inform Humanitarian Operations: They guide WFP operations and enable effective interventions to save lives and strengthen livelihoods. Furthermore, they feed into the Humanitarian Needs Overviews and Humanitarian Response Plans.
Inform Government Programmes: They provide in-depth information used by Government stakeholders and contribute to building capacity.
Provide Baselines: They act as benchmarks for future assessments by enabling the tracking of trends.
Inform IPC Analyses: They provide evidence for multisectoral analyses to inform the overall humanitarian food needs.
Inform Targeting: They provide the basis for further analysis, allowing e.g. design of a targeting approach to ensure the most vulnerable and food insecure populations can be reached.
What are Key Questions Addressed by WFP Assessments?
Who are the food insecure or vulnerable people? Assessments are done at household level, and households are grouped according to their level of food insecurity.
How many people are food insecure or vulnerable? Probability sampling methods are used to be able to report findings of food insecurity and vulnerability for the entire population surveyed.
Where do these people live? Key food insecurity figures are provided at geographical level.
What are the underlying causes of food insecurity? Information on drivers of food insecurity is collected and reported.
What are the implications for food security interventions? Assessments provide an evidence base for recommendations of interventions to alleviate food insecurity.