Summary of Proceedings of the International Scientific Symposium on Measurement and Assessment of Food Deprivation and Undernutrition
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The World Food Summit mandated FAO to measure and monitor progress towards the Summit goal of halving the number of hungry by 2015. The decision to hold a scientific symposium on the measurement of food deprivation and undernutrition was motivated by this objective and the need to review the current status of the widely used methods for measuring hunger. It also aimed to recommend improvements in the methods, which would help FAO to further its work in carrying out this mandate. Since the monito ring of the progress towards the World Food Summit goal involves national and international stakeholders, the Symposium also provided an opportunity for them to present their perspectives. By promoting dialogue among advocates of various methods, the Symposium served to create a greater appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods as well as how the corresponding measures complement each other. The main consensus to emerge at the Symposium was that no single measure c an capture all aspects of hunger while at the same time providing policy-makers with relevant and timely information in a cost-effective manner. Five methods were covered in the Symposium: 1) FAO method for measuring undernourishment by combining information from food balance sheets and household income and expenditure surveys. 2) Measuring food insecurity using household income and expenditure survey data. 3) Measuring adequacy of dietary intake based on individual intake surveys. 4) Measuring child nutritional status based on anthropometric surveys. 5) Qualitative methods for measuring people's perception of food insecurity and hunger.