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Brief: Two Methods for Measuring Household Food Security and Vulnerability- Evidence from the Zondoma Food Security Initiative, Burkina Faso

Authors:
Africare | USAID
Year Published:
2007
Resource Type:
Case Studies
Language:
English

This bulletin compares and contrasts the results of two different methods for measuring food insecurity and vulnerability levels in the ZFSI Phase II project villages in Burkina Faso.

The first method, Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP), was developed by Africare in the late 1990s as a tool for identifying vulnerable groups and measuring the impacts of Africare Title II-funded programs on increasing or diminishing the number of people classified in the most vulnerable groups.

The second method for identifying food insecurity is relatively new and is questionnaire-based (hereafter referred to as the FANTA/Cornell questionnaire method).

Each of the two methods (Africare MAHFP and FANTA/Cornell questionnaire) had its strengths and weaknesses as a basis for calculating the two principal food insecurity indicators for the project.