World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 98

Constructing a Database for Food Security Assessments in Southeast Asia

security by providing long-term and
vulnerability-specific data to empirically
test general theoretical approaches in
research areas which are all entwined
with food security such as: poverty
dynamics; risks and behavioral aspects in
development; demography, gender and
inequality; nutrition and poverty; finance
and development; regional development;
labor and migration; middle income
trap; and climate, environment and
agriculture.

long run. Generally such research must
adopt a comprehensive approach which
allows identifying and analyzing the
determinants of food security. There
are two reasons for this. First, only
through a better understanding of the
determinants will it be possible to help
to prevent food emergencies. Second,
such a comprehensive approach allows
considering the context and the interplay
of factors which are important.

We further suggest that much
could be gained if food security
research will be joined with research
on vulnerability to poverty. Hence data
collection on food security must be not
only comprehensive but also become part
of broader livelihood and vulnerability
studies. This has been highlighted
through our four case studies. These
showed that households’ livelihood
strategies and different types of shocks
are intertwined with food security. Food
security assessments also need to be based
on long-term panel datasets, as only these
allow taking into account the dynamics
of food security and hereby capture the
risk dimension of food security.

Against this background, we
presented our long-term panel data
project for Thailand and Vietnam which
we believe is unique and valuable also
for food security assessments. These data
are available for the worldwide research
community dealing with socio-economic
questions of development. The project,
for example allows: (i) comparisons of
countries, regions and provinces, (ii)
assures representativeness for potentially
food insecure rural populations as its
sample size at provincial level is larger
than in any of the existing panels, (iii)
especially allows to capture the risk

Summary and Conclusion

G

iven the need for research to better
understand the determinants and
drivers of food security in order
to contribute to a long-term solution of
the problem this article promotes the
notion of advancing and complementing
panel databases that allow undertaking
in-depth and causal analyses in food
security.

We started out from the findings
that the literature on food security
assessments has evolved rapidly, but that
each concept or indicator of food security
has its own shortcomings; in addition,
individual measures fail to capture all
four important dimensions of food
security, and rather complement than
substitute each other. Our case studies
were intended to show that result s of
food security assessments can differ
depending on the type of indicator used.

We conclude however that
although specific food security indicators
remain
useful
for
international
organizations to undertake quick
analyses especially in situations of
emergency, more rigorous research is
needed to achieve food security on the
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