title: Validity and reliability of food security measures.
abstract: This paper reviews some of the existing food security indicators, discussing the validity of the underlying concept and the expected reliability of measures under reasonably feasible conditions. The main objective of the paper is to raise awareness on existing trade-offs between different qualities of possible food security measurement tools that must be taken into account when such tools are proposed for practical application, especially for use within an international monitoring framework. The hope is to provide a timely, useful contribution to the process leading to the definition of a food security goal and the associated monitoring framework within the post-2015 Development Agenda.
authors.affiliation: Statistics Division, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cafiero
authors.affiliation: McGill Institute for Global Food Security, School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Hugo R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Melgar-Quiñonez
authors.affiliation: Statistics Division, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Terri J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Ballard
authors.affiliation: Statistics Division, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Anne W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Kepple
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000465:Algorithms; D003906:Developing Countries; D004032:Diet; D005502:Food; D005523:Food Supply; D014943:Global Health; D006815:Hunger; D007391:International Cooperation; D044342:Malnutrition; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design; D014894:Weights and Measures
keywords: food security; post-2015 Development Agenda; validity of empirical measures