1 Understanding food insecurity in rural Rwanda: how women ...

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later shifted to access to food at household and individual levels after 1980 (Maxwell and Smith 1992). The 1980s shift of emphasis from 'food production' via 'food security' to 'household food security' brought the household into the picture as a target and unit of analysis (Gillepsie and Mason 1991, 32). The shift took place due to the realisation that the problem of hunger has more to do with inequalities in distribution and that increased food production was only part of the solution. Since then, the concept of food security has shifted from simply being a question of availability of food (at the national or even local level) to the more complex issue of access at the household or individual level (Maxwell and Smith 1992). Although food security refers to the availability of food and people’s ability to access it, food security can be a confusing concept because it is a complex, multifaceted problem involving different interlinked aspects (McDonald 2010; DEFRA 2006). The definition of food security changed with time. For example, the 1974 World Food Summit definition focused largely on food supply, defining food security as the “availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of basic foodstuffs to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to offset fluctuations in production and prices” (UN 1975, 6). In the early 1980, the definition of food security used by FAO (1983) was expanded to include both the physical and economic access as vital components of food security, a concern incorporated into later definitions as well, such as the 1996 Rome Declaration on World Food Security (Rome Declaration 1996). In 2001, FAO further redefined this idea, adding “social access” (asking whether all household members have equal access to food) into food security, establishing the definition used today: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO 2009). What all the definitions have in common is not only the availability of food supplies, but also the ability of all people to gain access to sufficient amounts of nutritious food for an active and healthy life (Sen 1982; Clay 2002; FAO 2003b; Runge et al. 2003; Barrett and Maxwell 2005; Shaw2007; Barret 2010 cited in McDonald 2010). 4.5. The dimensions of food security 1. Availability of food: availability of sufficient food refers to the overall ability of the agricultural system to meet food demand (Schmidhuber and Tubiello (2007) and it is achieved if adequate food is ready to have at people’s disposal (Gross 2000, 5). Therefore, food 10
availability addresses the “supply side” of food security and is determined by the level of food production, stock levels and net trade. The paradox regarding food availability and food insecurity is that national self-sufficiency is neither necessary nor sufficient to guarantee food security at the individual level (Schmidhuber and Tubiello 2007). As examples, Hong Kong and Singapore are not selfsufficient (agriculture is nonexistent) but their populations are food-secure, whereas India is self-sufficient but a large part of its population is not food-secure. 2. Access to food: As discussed above, an adequate supply of food at the national or international level does not in itself guarantee household level food security. Food availability for the nation as a whole or even for the world as a whole does not necessarily translate food availability to all sections of a given community or of each individual household (Sen 1981, 43). Access refers to the household’s or individual’s command over food (Sen 1981), and it is ensured when all households have sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods (through production, purchase or donation) for a nutritious diet (Gross 2000). (Maxwell and Smith 1992, 11) discuss access to food using the term ‘entitlement’ and they say that the entitlement of a person stands for the different alternative commodity bundles that a person can acquire through the uses of various legal channels of acquirement open to someone in his position. The entitlement relations of individuals are determined by what they own, what they produce, what they can trade, and what they inherit or are given 3. Food utilization: utilization is only discussed from a biological perspective and it encompasses all food safety and quality aspects of nutrition; its subdimensions are therefore related to health, including the sanitary conditions across the entire food chain (Gross 2000; Schmidhuber and Tubiello 2007). It is not enough that someone is getting what appears to be an adequate quantity of food if that person is unable to make use of the food. This is where food security and nutrition get connected. People are food secure if the food intake at their disposal is beneficial to their bodies and if their bodies use the food intake in a healthy and nutritious way. Utilization also refers to the proper use of food and includes the existence of appropriate food processing and storage practices, adequate knowledge and application of nutrition and childcare and adequate health and sanitation services (FAO 2000; FANTA 2006). This dimension is not relevant for the present study due to its biological character and it won’t be developed further. 11
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