The Challenge of Measuring Hunger

The Challenge of Measuring Hunger

There is widespread interest in the number of hungry people in the world and trends in hunger. Current global counts rely on combining each country's total food balance with information on distribution patterns from household consumption expen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	De Weerdt, Joachim, Beegle, Kathleen, Friedman, Jed, Gibson, John
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	ACCESS TO FOOD AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AGRICULTURE ANIMAL FEED BREASTFEEDING CALORIE AVAILABILITY CALORIE CONTENT CALORIE INTAKE CALORIE REQUIREMENTS CASSAVA CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES DIET DIETARY DIVERSITY DIETARY ENERGY ECONOMIC GROWTH FAMILY MEMBERS FOOD ACCESS FOOD AVAILABILITY FOOD COMPOSITION FOOD CONSUMPTION FOOD CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE FOOD CONSUMPTION INFORMATION FOOD CRISIS FOOD DISTRIBUTION FOOD INSECURITY FOOD INTAKE FOOD ITEMS FOOD LOSSES FOOD POLICY FOOD POLICY RESEARCH FOOD PRODUCTION FOOD QUANTITY FOOD RECALL FOOD STOCKS FOODS FRUIT GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY GLOBAL HUNGER GLOBAL POVERTY HOUSEHOLD BUDGET HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD FOOD HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY HOUSEHOLD SIZE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN ENERGY HUNGER HUNGRY HUNGRY PEOPLE INCOME INCOME DISTRIBUTION INEQUALITY INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIVING STANDARDS MALNUTRITION METABOLISM NUTRIENT NUTRITION NUTRITION INTERVENTIONS NUTRITION POLICIES NUTRITIONISTS POLITICAL ECONOMY POOR POTATOES POVERTY ESTIMATES POVERTY MEASUREMENT POVERTY REDUCTION PROTEIN RICE ROOT CROPS RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL SETTINGS SNACKS SWEET POTATOES TARGETING TUBERS WORLD FOOD SUMMIT
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/18741920/challenge-measuring-hunger http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16814

Description
Summary:	There is widespread interest in the number of hungry people in the world and trends in hunger. Current global counts rely on combining each country's total food balance with information on distribution patterns from household consumption expenditure surveys. Recent research has advocated for calculating hunger numbers directly from these same surveys. For either approach, embedded in this effort are a number of important details about how household surveys are designed and how these data are then used. Using a survey experiment in Tanzania, this study finds great fragility in hunger counts stemming from alternative survey designs. As a consequence, comparable and valid hunger numbers will be lacking until more effort is made to either harmonize survey designs or better understand the consequences of survey design variation.

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