Malnutrition in the World: Usefulness and Limitations of FAO Index and GHI

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Malnutrition in the World
Usefulness and Limitations of FAO index
Food security has raised concerns among academics, policy makers, and practitioners, who have implemented measures to curb food insecurities. The metrics ensure that food is available, accessible, stable, and ready for use. Also, the metrics draws data from individual, household, regional, and national levels (Carletto et al. 30-40). The tools vary from simple indicators whereby data is collected and analyzed to resource-intensive and detailed data. The measures depend on data from purported consequences and hypothesized determinants.
Cartello et al. (30-40) explains that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) focuses on enhancing food security by implementing various measurement tools that help in providing numerous options. According to FAO, the measures developed in the country focus more on food availability. Food availability can be measured by tools such as “food balance sheet” that are retrieved from national food supply data. The balance sheets contain data on the quantity of food exported or imported in a country, the quantity of food used for seed, livestock, exportation, processed for other uses, and lost during transportation and storage. FAO uses the information to create the main food security measure. The data on food utilization and supply is used to estimate food surpluses and shortages, creating a projection of food demand in the future. Moreover, it helps in setting targets for agricultural produces. The data is based on the assumption that the distribution mean of the calorie intake is equivalent to the energy supplied in the population. However, the FAO assumption has limitations because it lacks reliable data on food distribution and losses in the balance sheet (Carletto et al. 30-40). Furthermore, researchers have identified great disparities between the number of households with no access to food provided by the balance sheet data and that provided by the USDA (Jones et al. 481-505). USDA estimates are usually focused on using projected calorie intake approximations for low and high-income groups. The information is usually founded on data from income distribution.
Usefulness and Limitations of GHI
GHI “Global Hunger Index” is used to measure more than one aspect of food security in a country. For example, the GHI by IFPRI focuses on measuring hunger using three indicators such as child mortality, undernourishment, and child underweight. Illustrating, child mortality may include the rate of deaths among children aged below 5 years, child underweight may include the percentage of children aged below 5 years with a significantly lower weight for their age, and undernourishment may consist of the fraction of undernourished individuals in the population (Carletto et al. 30-40). ...