• Introduction

Introduction to livelihoods and food security

The Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (FIVIMS) has developed as an international instrument for food security measurement and analysis. It is a network of systems analysing and disseminating information regarding people who are food insecure or vulnerable to being so. The FIVIMS secretariat is based at the FAO with data collation undertaken by FAO technical divisions.

The broad aim of this paper focuses on the utility of the livelihoods approach to food security measurement. It specifically looks at FAO’s cross departmental application of the livelihoods approach, also drawing on practical lessons from FIVIMS. Because livelihoods approaches are based on holistic analysis and people-centred participatory approaches, they pose challenges for decision makers and planners. This is especially so where livelihoods approaches are used to articulate measurements at the aggregate level of decision making – this remains a central challenge to the relevance of livelihoods approaches to FIVIMS and food insecurity measurement in general.

Some feel that the livelihoods approach has less precision and utility when it comes to analysis at national and international levels. Others feel the livelihoods approach is relevant to the scaling-up of data as well as disaggregating data the level of sub national differences. The key is to find ways to examine food security whilst reconciling these two competing views regarding the utility of the livelihoods approach. The Household Economy Approach developed by Save the Children may exemplify a way forward for FIVIMS in this respect.
FIVIMS is assessing the degree to which the livelihoods approach can be used in estimating global data of the undernourished. Challenges remain in how to integrate the diversity of local livelihoods data into aggregate level cross-country comparisons that can credibly inform policy and interventions (Hussein et al, forthcoming). However the advantages of doing so are numerous, including:

• the potential to use livelihoods approaches to strengthen understanding of macro-micro linkages in food insecurity
• highlight the need for food insecurity analysis to begin by understanding people’s experiences of hunger and a needs assessment identifying constraints and opportunities to existing livelihoods prior to identifying interventions
• aid in disaggregating national level data enabling more sensitive and differentiated policies and interventions.

The paper concludes with a synopsis of the ways in which local, regional and national level capacity needs to be fostered in order to collect and collate livelihoods analysis with aggregate data at the national and global levels.

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