Food Security Measures in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Validation of the LSMS-ISA Scale†

Despite the international community's emphasis on the need to achieve food security, there is still much debate surrounding its measurement, due mainly to its multidimensional aspects. This paper investigates the capacity of a new type of measure, food security scales, to capture dimensions of food security that other measures, such as food expenditures, caloric availability and food diversity, may miss. Drawing on nationally representative household panel data from Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania, I find that the scale is a useful complementary measure to standard measures. Cross-section and panel analysis shows that the scale provides further insights into food vulnerability and coping strategies characteristic of food insecurity, dimensions not captured by the standard measures.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Journal of African Economies

• Publication date

  2019-04-09

• Fields of study

  Agricultural and Food Sciences, Geography, Economics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/JAE/EJZ011
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• THE STATE OF FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION IN THE WORLD BUILDING RESILIENCE FOR PEACE AND FOOD SECURITY

  2017influential reference
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015

  2015cited by this paper
• Características psicométricas de la escala de seguridad alimentaria ELCSA aplicada en Colombia, Guatemala y México.

  2015cited by this paper
• Comprehensive Food Security & Vulnerability Analysis

  2013cited by this paper
• Experience and Expression of Food Insecurity Across Cultures : Practical Implications for Valid Measurement April 2004

  2013cited by this paper
• Development of a Global Standard for Monitoring Hunger Worldwide

  2013influential reference
• Build it back better: Deconstructing food security for improved measurement and action

  2013cited by this paper
• Rome Declaration on World Food Security

  2013influential reference
• Are the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) items comparable across countries?

  2011cited by this paper
• Validation of a measure of household hunger for cross-cultural use.

  2010influential reference
• Validation of the world food programme's food consumption score and alternative indicators of household food security

  2009cited by this paper
• Internal validity of a household food security scale is consistent among diverse populations participating in a food supplement program in Colombia

  2008cited by this paper
• Measuring Food Security in the Dominican Republic Adaptation of the U . S . Food Security Survey Module

  2008cited by this paper
• Report on use of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and Household Dietary Diversity Score in two survey rounds in Manica and Sofala Provinces, Mozambique, 2006-2007. FAO food security project GCP/MOZ/079/BEL

  2008cited by this paper
• What needs to change to increase chlamydia screening in Australia? The views of general practitioners

  2008cited by this paper
• Comparison of a Qualitative and Quantitative Approach To Developing a Household Food Insecurity Scale for Bangladesh

  2006cited by this paper
• Validación de escala de la seguridad alimentaria doméstica en Antioquia, Colombia

  2006influential reference
• Being poor, feeling poorer: Combining objective and subjective measures of welfare in Albania

  2006cited by this paper
• Commonalities in the experience of household food insecurity across cultures: what are measures missing?

  2006cited by this paper
• Measuring Food Security Using Respondents' Perception of Food Consumption Adequacy

  2006cited by this paper
• Household food insecurity and food expenditure in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, And the Philippines.

  2006cited by this paper
• BMC Public Health BioMed Central Research article AIDS knowledge and attitudes in a Turkish population: an epidemiological study

  2005cited by this paper
• BMC Public Health BioMed Central

  2004cited by this paper
• Hambre en la Argentina

  2004cited by this paper
• Commentary 1

  2003cited by this paper
• Understanding the experience of household food insecurity in rural Bangladesh leads to a measure different from that used in other countries.

  2003cited by this paper
• Dietary diversity as a food security indicator

  2002cited by this paper
• FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

  2001influential reference
• CHOOSING OUTCOME INDICATORS OF HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY •TECHNICAL GUIDE #7•

  1999cited by this paper
• Development of indicators to assess hunger.

  1990cited by this paper
• Longitudinal Analyses of the Effects of Trade Unions

  1984cited by this paper
• Poverty and famines. An essay on entitlement and deprivation [incl. case studies of famines in Bengal, Ethiopia, Sahel, and Bangladesh].

  1982influential reference

• Climate change and food security in Ethiopia

  2026cites this paper
• Assessing the utility of machine learning for predicting food sufficiency: a case study in Malawi

  2025cites this paper
• Environmental change, aquatic conditions, and household food security: evidence from Lake Malawi

  2025cites this paper
• Food classifications provide an approximate packaging indicator to support monitoring of mismanaged plastic waste

  2025cites this paper
• Future scenarios for urban agriculture and food security in sub-Saharan Africa: Modelling the urban land-food system in an agent-based approach

  2025cites this paper
• Mitigating climate vulnerability: the crop diversification effect

  2025cites this paper
• Food Security and Food Sovereignty: A Review of Commonly Used Indicators and Consideration of Environmental Sustainability Aspects

  2024cites this paper
• Farm workers’ food security during food price hikes: a political economy of landless rice-wheat farm labourers in Pakistan’s Punjab

  2024cites this paper
• Food security beyond global warming: economic and policy perspectives from Uganda

  2023influential citation
• A nonparametric analysis of climate change nexus on agricultural productivity in Africa: implications on food security

  2023cites this paper
• Application of item response theory modelling to measure an aggregate food security access score

  2023cites this paper
• A systematic literature review of indicators measuring food security

  2023cites this paper
• Food Security: An Analysis of Food Systems within Africa

  2022cites this paper
• Climatic conditions and household food security: Evidence from Tanzania.

  2022cites this paper
• Exploration of Food Security Challenges towards More Sustainable Food Production: A Systematic Literature Review of the Major Drivers and Policies

  2022cites this paper
• Assessing Africa’s Agricultural TFP for Food Security and Effects on Human Development: Evidence from 35 Countries

  2022cites this paper
• Efficiency, Legitimacy, and Impacts of Targeting Methods: Evidence from an Experiment in Niger

  2018cites this paper
• The Food Security Concept: Definition, Conceptual Frameworks, Measurement and Operationalisation

  year unknowninfluential citation