Food Insecurity

Abstract

This study focuses on food security, an essential issue for human sustainable development, included among the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Food insecurity affects people around the globe, because even in countries with high levels of income or food availability, food access may lack. Food insecurity is an issue both in rural and urban settlements, and this study adds to the knowledge on the subject, analyzing globally experienced food insecurity referring more specifically to a variety of typologies of location: from farm and rural locations to small towns and big cities. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), developed by FAO, is included in the only survey that allows to measure food insecurity for the first time also in developed countries, and in a comparable way with other world regions. By means of multiple correspondences analysis, the main associations among characteristics of people related with food insecurity are visualized. The estimation of multilevel logistic models on individual data allowed to provide new empirical evidence on the principal features of experienced food insecurity in different kind of locations, offering better understanding of the complex phenomenon. Drivers for policies against hunger specific to the living location have been identified: in rural areas, women present a significant disadvantage, while in urban areas the number of children in the household present stronger links with experienced food insecurity. The results go beyond the usual monitoring at the macro level of food insecurity, and offer new insights into the design of food related policies, in the effort to meet the needs of all people across the rural-urban continuum and to ensure sustainable development.KeywordsSustainable DevelopmentFood securityFood Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES)Urban/RuralMultilevel ModelsMulticorrespondence analysis