IKSSA CONF PRESENT 2019 11 20

Indigenous Knowledge System and Food Security:
The use of Coping Strategy Index to estimate levels of
food insecurity in two Provinces in South Africa
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Presentation par:
Prof Dibungi Luseba

•Household food security is depicted as the ability of families to get adequate, safe,
and nutritious food to address dietary needs to lead a sound and productive life
•Food insecurity and hunger prevail in South Africa and affect at least a quarter to a
half of the country’s population
•The 2011 Global Hunger Index report…..10.6% of adults reported being
sometimes or always hungry
•The head count of food insecure people in South Africa does not enable an
understanding of households and community’s experiences and perceptions of risk
as well as the local coping mechanisms that are employed by households when
faced with food shortages.
•The country needs baseline information on households’ coping mechanisms that
could be strengthened and supported through well targeted social protection
measures
Introduction

Introduction ….
•Coping strategies have been defined as all the strategically selected acts
that individuals and households in a poor socio-economic position use to
restrict their expenses or earn extra income to enable them to pay for their
basic necessities and not fall too far below their society’s level of welfare”.
•Key questions emerge in regards to the analysis of food insecurity within
the context of South Africa:
–How do we determine the different intensity and/or severity levels of food insecurity
among rural communities, that enable proper and effective targeting of food security
interventions?
–Secondly, can we add value to the already existing knowledge and methodologies by
incorporating local communities’ experiences and perceptions of risk and vulnerability to
food insecurity through the use of the Coping strategy index?

Objectives
•With the help of local communities in rural and urban areas, the research project
documented the traditional coping mechanisms that are adopted by households
when faced with food shortages.
•This information was used to construct a coping strategy …….to rank households
according to severity or intensity of food insecurity.
•
•The distinction between the food security severity/intensity levels has got profound
implications on the strategic design and urgency of response or intervention.
•
•To further validate the use of the coping strategy index (CSI) for food security
analysis, the research project tested the CSI against commonly used benchmark
indicators used, such as food consumption based indicators like household caloric
availability.

Methodology
•Sampling
•Data were collected from the districts
•Stratified sampling procedure were applied to sample municipalities in each of
the districts.
•Stratification is a process that involves dividing the population of interest into sub-
groups (e.g. strata) that share something in common e.g. livelihoods or land use
zone.
•Both administrative boundaries (i.e. municipality) and livelihood zones (i.e.
predominantly pastoral, peri-urban and predominantly arable) were used as
criterion for defining strata.
•Households within the villages remain the ultimate sampling unit, and
approximately 20 households (100 from each province) were sampled.