Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Food data collected using acquisition and consumption approaches with daily diaries in the Armenian 2004 ILCS MARTIROSOVA, Diana National Statistical Service, Republic of Armenia

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Introduction The National Statistics Service of Armenia collected food data in the 2004 Integrated Living Conditions Survey (2004 ILCS) based on two distinct approaches namely, food acquisition (FA) and food consumption (FC). Daily diaries were used to collect both quantity and monetary values of each food item acquired for consumption or consumed from acquisition from various food sources recorded in separate sections of the diaries.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Introduction Food acquisition consisted of all daily purchases, and other daily food items acquired from non-purchased sources such as own production in the case of perishable food, own stock which may be piled up from production or purchases, and received free or as aid among others. Food consumption consisted of all daily food items actually used for daily consumption by the household obtained from sources such as purchases, own stock from production or purchases, received free or as aid etc. The two datasets were processed and analysed separately using the FAO food security statistics module (FSSM) for deriving the same set of food security indicators at national and sub national level.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Introduction This paper discusses the derivation of the food security statistics using the acquisition and consumption approaches and analyses the impact of any observed differences on the assessment and monitoring of the food deprivation at national and sub national levels.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Objectives The main objective of this paper is to discuss any observed differences between food security statistics derived using acquisition and consumption data. The reason is that most household surveys in the world collect food data using the acquisition approach, on the understanding that at national level households not acquiring food during the household reference period would be counter-balanced by households reporting food acquisition regardless of when the food was actually consumed. Many critics of the acquisition approach, as a method of food insecurity assessment, are related to the fact that high income households have more chance of acquiring bulk amounts of food for consumption for longer periods than low income households. Hence, it is important to understand the behavior of food security statistics based on food acquisition and food consumption.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Food Security Statistics From The 2004 ILCS The results on food security statistics, using the two approaches acquisition and consumption at national and sub national levels, regard the following: dietary energy value, monetary value and energy unit value, inequality in access to food due to income, share of food in total consumption, food deprivation and critical food poverty. These estimates were derived from food data provided by households, and recorded in separate sections to facilitate the necessary calculations using the acquisition and consumption approaches.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Food deprivation Given that the different estimates of access to food due to income, for both acquisition and consumption approaches, had the same energy quantity, the prevalence of food deprivation (acquisition) would be higher at country level. However, in the northern region a lower acquired than consumed energy quantity would yield a higher food deprivation as the inequality in access to food was the same. Important to note is the fact that the results on food deprivation show an opposite trend compared to the Engel ratios, particularly in low income households, i.e. the acquisition approach would under-estimate the Engel ratio and over-estimate the prevalence of food deprivation. A similar pattern was observed for household income levels.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Food deprivation Prevalence of food deprivation at country level and by area and regions Country Yerevan Other urban Rural North Central North South Percent Food deprivation (Acquisition) Food deprivation (Consumption)

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Critical Food poverty Even if critical food poverty in Armenia is very low, the fact that the acquired energy unit value was lower than the consumed energy unit value, then the food acquisition approach would yield a lower critical poverty line, resulting in a lower prevalence of critical food poverty than using the food consumption approach.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Critical Food poverty Prevalence of critical food poverty at country level and by area and by regions Nationwide Yerevan Other urban Rural North Central North South Percent Prevalence of Critical Food Poverty (Acquisition) Prevalence of Critical Food Poverty (Consumption)

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Dietary energy The estimates of dietary energy, using food data based on acquisition or consumption at country level, were the same in quantity at 2020 kilocalories per person per day. However, households in the two lowest income quintiles had less energy from acquired than from consumed food quantities. On the contrary, more energy from acquired than from consumed food, was observed in households of the two highest income quintiles. The differences were higher in low income than in high income households and sampling weights balanced both estimates at country level. Households in rural areas had less energy from acquired than from consumed food, while households in Yerevan had more energy from acquired than from consumed food.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Dietary energy Energy (Kcal/person/day) by income Country Quintile 1 Quintile 2 Quintile 3 Quintile 4 Quintile 5 Acquired energy Consumed energy

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Monetary value of food and energy unit value At country level the monetary value of food was lower using the acquisition than consumption approach. Consequently the acquired energy unit value (Drams per 1000 Kcal) was lower than consumed energy unit value, since the amounts of energy (Kcal per person per day) were similar for both acquisition and consumption approaches.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Monetary value of food and energy unit value Country and regional monetary values of food (Drams per person per day) Country Yerevan North Central North South monetary value of acquired food monetary value of consumed food

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Monetary value of food and energy unit value Energy unit value (Drams/1000 kcal) at country level and by regions Country Yerevan North Central North South Acquired energy unit value Consumed energy unit value

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Inequality in access to food due to income The inequality in access to food, as measured by the coefficient of variation (CV) of energy due to income based on food acquisition, was higher than that based on food consumption at country level and for all sub groups of population, except in the central- northern region where both approaches yielded the same value.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Inequality in access to food due to income CV of energy due to income at country level and by area and by regions Country Yerevan Other urban Rural North Central North South Percent Acquired CV_kcalConsumed CV_kcal

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Share of food in total consumption The shares of food monetary value to total consumption expenditure (Engel ratios) were higher using data on food collected as consumption than that collected as acquisition, except in Yerevan. The country results reflected the same pattern, in terms of difference, as in the regions. The Yerevan over-estimate was small. Urban and rural population showed a similar pattern as at country level. The Engel ratios were higher using food collected as consumption in all quintiles, except in the highest income level. Given that the purpose of the food insecurity assessment is to achieve estimates of food deprivation, it is clear that using food data based on acquisition would yield underestimates of Engel ratios

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Share of food in total consumption Share of food in total consumption expenditure (percent) at national level and by area and region Nationwide Yerevan Other urban Rural North Central North South Share of food as acquired in total consumption expenditure Share of food as consumed in total consumption expenditure

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Conclusion and Remarks 1. It is important to consider collecting food data using the consumption approach for the purpose of food insecurity assessment. 2. It is important to consider using the acquisition approach for the purpose of national accounts. 3. If food acquisition had been used instead of food consumption, even if the energy quantities had been the same at country level, food deprivation would have been slightly over-estimated, 33 versus 32 percent; however the over and under-estimation for sub-national population groups would have been higher. In the case of non-geographical population groups, food deprivation derived using the acquisition approach would yield over- estimates in low income groups and under-estimates in high income groups, for example.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels Conclusion and Remarks 4. The resultant increase in food deprivation from using acquisition rather than consumption would be due to an over- estimation of the coefficient of variation of energy due to income, 9 versus 6 percent. 5. The decrease in critical food poverty is driven by a lower energy unit value obtained from using acquisition rather than consumption. At sub-national levels the over-estimation would be even of greater magnitude in geographical population groups.

Statistics Division Beijing, China 25 October, 2007 EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme Side Event Food Security Statistics and Information for Targeting Poor and Hungry Populations at Sub-national Levels THANK YOU