Food insecurity is a critical global challenge, impacting millions of lives worldwide. To effectively address this issue, it’s essential to accurately measure and understand its prevalence and severity. Two key indicators used by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES). While both aim to quantify hunger, they offer distinct perspectives and levels of detail.
Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU): A Traditional Approach
The Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) has long been FAO’s primary metric for monitoring hunger at global and regional levels. This indicator relies on national-level data related to food availability, food consumption patterns, and estimated energy needs of the population. Based on this data, PoU estimates the adequacy of dietary energy intake across a population. Historically, global hunger figures, often cited as affecting between 702 and 828 million people, are derived using this PoU methodology.
However, the PoU approach has limitations. Its aggregated nature, based on national averages, makes it difficult to pinpoint specific vulnerable populations within countries. This lack of granular detail hinders the ability to effectively target interventions and monitor progress towards the ambitious Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Zero Hunger, which emphasizes leaving no one behind.
Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES): A People-Centric Approach
In contrast to PoU, the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) offers a more direct and individual-centered approach to measuring food insecurity. FIES estimates the percentage of a country’s population facing moderate or severe food insecurity by directly interviewing individuals about their lived experiences related to food access. Questions focus on experiences associated with constrained access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food due to financial or other resource limitations.
The strength of FIES lies in its ability to provide measurements of food insecurity at the individual or household level. It also captures different degrees of severity, allowing for a nuanced understanding of the problem. Furthermore, FIES estimates are comparable across countries and diverse sub-populations within countries. This capability is crucial for identifying “who” and “where” food insecurity is most prevalent, going beyond national trends to highlight the most vulnerable groups and locations. For monitoring progress toward SDG 2, FIES serves as a key FAO indicator, measuring the proportion of the population experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity.
Moderate and Severe Food Insecurity: Understanding the Levels
The FIES framework distinguishes between moderate and severe food insecurity, reflecting different levels of impact on individuals’ lives.
Moderate food insecurity is characterized by a reduction in the quality and/or quantity of food consumed. Individuals experiencing moderate food insecurity are uncertain about their ability to consistently access food due to resource constraints. This level of food insecurity can increase the risk of various forms of malnutrition, including stunting in children, micronutrient deficiencies, and even obesity in adults due to reliance on cheaper, less nutritious foods.
Severe food insecurity represents a more critical situation where individuals have run out of food and, in the most extreme cases, have gone multiple days without eating. This group represents the “hungry” as commonly understood. The number of severely food insecure individuals, as measured by FIES, complements the hunger figures derived from the PoU, providing a more comprehensive picture of the global hunger landscape.
Global, regional, and country-level estimates for both PoU and moderate or severe food insecurity are released annually in the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report and are also accessible through FAOSTAT and the UN Global SDG Indicators Data Platform. This regular monitoring is crucial for tracking chronic food insecurity worldwide. It’s important to note that this differs from reports like the Global Report on Food Crises, which focuses on acute food insecurity in crisis-affected regions using different assessment methods like the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
In conclusion, understanding food insecurity requires robust measurement tools. While PoU provides a valuable overview at the national level, the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) offers a more granular, people-centered approach, crucial for effectively addressing Food Insecurity And achieving the goals of SDG 2, ensuring no one is left behind in the fight against hunger.
