CHOICE OF INDICATORS FOR FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION MONITORING

Traditional indicators of food and nutrition security such as calorie adequacy and anthropometric indicators have been found difficult to incorporate into ongoing monitoring and evaluation systems. This paper develops a conceptual framework to identify and evaluate alternative indicators of food and nutrition security. The results of the empirical analysis of four different data sets show that relatively simple indicators perform well in locating the food and nutrition insecure. The paper makes several suggestions for the choice of indicators for food security and nutrition monitoring in Africa.