Food security and nutrition statistics - Methodology

Food Security

The methods and tools for producing food security indicators are continually developed and updated for use by national governments, FAO, its global partners, and regional organizations to monitor food security at the country, regional, and global levels. This includes the use of newly available information to improve the accuracy of the Prevalence of Undernourishment estimates as well as innovations in the FIES methodology to respond to evolving conditions and needs, e.g. programme evaluation and food security monitoring in crisis situations or during the global pandemic. FIES data analysis tools are freely available for downloading from the Voices of the Hungry webpage.

Food and Nutrient Consumption

Analytical methods and tools to compute food and nutrition-relevant statistics from food consumption data collected at the household level in nationally representative surveys are constantly developed and improved, as well. An important tool developed by FAO in collaboration with the World Bank to derive consistent food and nutrient consumption statistics from apparent food consumption data collected in Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys, is the ADePT-Food Security Module (ADePT-FSM). The module was initially funded by the European Union Union and optimized in 2018 for nutrient consumption analysis with funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ADePT-FSM is a stand-alone software that is freely available for downloading.  The statistics generated using the software are useful for assessing and monitoring food security, and food and nutrient consumption at national and subnational levels, as well as by food and food groups. The most recent version of the software can be downloaded HERE.