Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA) Sudan
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Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA) Sudan Summary Report, Q1 2021 May 2021 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 Introduction The Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA) was conducted from December 2020 to early March 2021 against the backdrop of ongoing economic instability and persistent chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. The assessment was conducted in all 18 states in Sudan and sought to ascertain the food security situation of the resident population, assess risk factors that contribute to food insecurity, and highlight vulnerable geographical areas. This information on vulnerability will enable well- informed decision-making processes for programme design and targeting purposes, as well as provide evidence for the expansion of future assistance programs. The CFSVA results are also a major data source for IPC, HNO and HRP. During this food security assessment, data was collected from approximately 36,300 resident households were completed in 181 localities distributed across all 18 states. The findings were aimed to be representative of households at the locality level. The questionnaire included information at the household level on demographics, housing, assets, livelihoods, expenditures, coping strategies and food source and consumption. Additional information was collected on child health and caring practices as well as awareness of nutrition related messages. Due to different methodologies of assessing food security, CFSVA figures are different from the IPC figures. Also, as CFSVA covers more diverse indicators, it is mainly used for WFP’s internal programme decision making purposes. WFP would like to thank State Ministries of Production and Economic Resources for their role in data collection, and HAC and COR for their role in field coordination. Executive Summary Despite the season’s above-average harvest (CFSAM), the food security situation has not improved significantly compared to last year (which had a poor harvest). This is likely due to the ongoing economic downturn, conflict induced displacements and impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods. Economic vulnerability has played a major role in this food insecurity as 91 percent of households are spending more than 65 percent of their total expenditure on food. According to CARI indicator, around 27 percent of the resident population households are estimated to be food insecure. While the prevalence of poor food consumption was on the lower side, almost half of households relied on livelihood-based negative coping strategies, focusing on immediate food needs and depleting their assets. The most common livelihood coping strategies included spending savings and cutting down on expenses for other basic needs such as education and health. High market reliance was observed. The households’ market reliance for food commodities often reached higher than 90 percent, with the other significant source being own production. With the deterioration of macroeconomic environment characterized by high inflation and food prices, the purchasing power of the households has significantly diminished. Other contributing factors include protracted political instability and the COVID-19 pandemic which has negatively impacted livelihoods. Households headed by women were more likely to be food insecure than a household headed by men by at least 11 percent, mostly due to limited access to the labour market. Considering that data was collected during the harvest season, and with the ongoing economic crisis and upcoming of the lean season in May, the food security situation is expected to worsen in the coming months. 1 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 Demographics Figure 1: Gender of household-head 18% 82% Male-headed HHs Female-headed HHs Figure 2: Highest level of education of household-head 6% 17% 31% 45% None Primary Secondary University The main income source was non-agricultural wage labour (which includes raksha, labour, wheel barrow or working as porter) and crops. 21 percent rely on these activities as their primary income source respectively. This is followed by business, which includes donkey cart, selling water, tea, handcraft or petty trade, and salaried work. Between 12 and 16 percent of respondents reported that one of these were their primary income sources. 2 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 Figure 3: Primary income source 21% 21% 16% 13% 12% 6% 6% 3% 3% 0% 0% Overall, the main income sources for the female-headed and male-headed households were similar. However, 12 percent of female-headed households relied on informal transfers such as remittances, which is three times the prevalence observed in male-headed households (4 percent). Male-headed households relied significantly more on non-agricultural wage labour (23 percent). Figure 4: Primary income source for female-headed and male-headed households 1% Begging % 10% Salaried work 12% 1% Mining 3% Firewood/charcoal 3% 0% 3% Food aid sale 0% 15% Non- Agricultural Wage labour (Raksha, Labour, Wheel… 23% 15% Agricultural wage labour 13% 19% Business (Donkey cart, Selling water/Tea/Handcraft, Petty… 15% 12% Transfers (Remittances, Gift, Donation) 4% 4% Livestock 6% 20% Crops 21% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% Female-headed HH Male-headed HH Food Security (CARI) Food insecurity is determined by the WFP corporate indicator, Consolidated Approach to Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI). Central to the approach is an explicit classification of households into four descriptive groups: food secure, marginally food secure, moderately food insecure, and severely food insecure. CARI combines a suite of food security indicators, including food consumption score (FCS), food expenditure share, and livelihood coping strategies, into a summary composite indicator. According to the CARI console, 27 percent of resident households are classified as food insecure. Among the food insecure, 24 percent of households were moderately food insecure and 3 percent of households 3 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 were severely food insecure. Moderate food insecurity is characterized by significant consumption gaps, or marginally able to meet minimum food needs only with the aid of irreversible coping strategies. Households that are severely food insecure often have extreme food consumption gaps or have suffered significant loss of livelihood assets that will eventually lead to food consumption gaps. On state level, the highest prevalence of food insecurity was observed in the Darfurs, North Kordofan, and Blue Nile. West Darfur had the highest level of food insecurity at 51 percent, followed by Central Darfur at 43 percent, North Kordofan at 39 percent, North Darfur at 38 percent, and Blue Nile at 31 percent. Figure 5. Prevalence of food insecurity by state 51% 43% 38% 39% 30% 29% 31% 27% 28% 27% 21% 22% 17% 15% 16% 16% 17% 12% 8% 4 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 Figure 6. Map of food security situation in Sudan according to CFSVA Table below is the list of localities with the highest prevalence of food insecurity (50 percent and above). See full table with all localities in annex 2. Table 1: Localities with 50 percent or above food insecurity CARI Severely State Locality Food food Insecure insecure Blue Nile Kurmuk 50% 12% North Kordofan Om Rwaba 51% 10% North Darfur Umkedada 52% 10% Gadarif Basonda 53% 10% North Darfur Malha 53% 11% Central Darfur Azoom 53% 6% Central Darfur West Jabel Marra 53% 6% South Darfur Bielel 54% 5% North Darfur Dar El Salam 54% 7% South Darfur Gerida 55% 4% South Darfur Reheed EL Berdi 55% 5% 5 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 North Darfur Mellit 55% 13% West Darfur Fur Barnga 56% 7% Red Sea Halaib 60% 15% West Darfur Habila 61% 10% Red Sea Gabit-Elmadien 61% 7% North Darfur Tawila 65% 6% North Darfur Saraf Omra 66% 3% North Jabel Marra Central Darfur (Rokero 67% 7% West Darfur Bida 71% 7% Profile of Food Insecure Population Households with the following traits are identified to be food insecure based on the CFSVA data. Socio-economic factors: • Households headed by women were more likely to be food insecure than households headed by men. 36 percent of the female headed households are food insecure, as opposed to 25 percent of their counterparts. • Household heads with a lower level of education were more likely to be food insecure. 34 percent of those with no education and 26 percent of those with only primary education were food insecure. Household heads that had a secondary or university education were less food insecure. • Households that owned more physical assets were highly likely to be food secure compared to households with less of them. Livelihoods activities: • Households that engaged in more sustainable and high return livelihood activities such as salaried work, mining and business were the most food secure. 83 percent of households with salaried work and 82 percent of the households with mining as main income were food secure. This was followed by households engaging in business (75 percent) and crop production (73 percent). • Households with begging, firewood/ charcoal collection and food aid sale as their main source of income were the most vulnerable group. 6 Comprehensive Food Security Vulnerability Assessment (CFSVA), Q1 2021 Figure 7. Prevalence of food insecurity by livelihood type Begging 1% 11% 38% 50% Salaried work 4% 79% 16% 1% Mining 4% 78% 17% 2% Firewood/charcoal 1% 53% 38% 7% Food aid sale 0% 58% 37% 5% Non- Agricultural Wage labour 3% 72% 23% 3% Agricultural wage labour 4% 64% 29% 4% Business 3% 72% 23% 2% Transfers 5% 64% 26% 5% Livestock 3% 65% 29% 3% Crops 6% 66% 25% 3% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Food secure Marginally food secure Moderately food insecure Severely food insecure Adequacy of Food Consumption The Food Consumption Score (FCS) is a composite indicator that takes into account the quantity and diversity of food groups consumed at household level a week prior to the survey to create a score for each household.