SECTION TWO

Reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI)

Definition/RATION/ALE – what does it measure? (max 2 lines)

The rCSI is an experience-based indicator measuring the behaviour of households over the past seven days when they did not have enough food or money to purchase food.

Methodology for collection – How to collect information for indicator (max 4 lines).

Conduct interviews with a representative sample of households (one respondent per household) assessing if, in the past seven days, the household resorted to any of the five strategies included due to lack of food or money to buy food by asking: "In the past 7 days, if there have been times when you did not have enough food or money to buy food, how often has your household had to: [name separately all five strategies]”

Methodology for analysis – How to analyse (Max 4 lines)
Visual demonstrations for thresholds
How to interpret: Urban v. rural, gender

• 1. Calculate the score for each strategy based on household answer (number of days out of seven when the household used the strategy) and by multiplying the number of days the strategy was used (between 0 and 7) with the universal severity weight allocated for the strategy. If the household did not use the strategy the final score for that particular strategy is 0.
• 2. Sum up the scores for all five individual strategies in order to get the total rCSI score for the household.
• 3. Calculate the percentage of households belonging in each rCSI category defined by the following cut-offs: 0-3, 4-18, and 19 and above which correspond to IPC Phases 1, 2 and 3 and above respectively.
• 4. If food insecurity in the area is high, and percentage in Phase 3+ based on rCSI is elevated, it may be useful to separate the group in Phase 3 and higher into two groups based on a tentative cut-off developed for Phase 4. In this case the households should be divided in four categories: 0-3, 4-18, 19-42, and 43 and above. These categories correspond to IPC Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4 and higher respectively.

Notes on indicator –
What does the indicator not tell us.
How long is it reliable for?

• • rCSI is best used for monitoring purposes, and to identify changes in household behaviour especially in early stages of a crisis. The indicator is less relevant for severe and long-term emergencies where households have already run out of many food coping options, and in these situations rCSI can provide results that artificially inflate the share of households perceived as food secure.
• • As a result rCSI is not well suited for very severe food insecurity situations, and in these cases rCSI should be compared to and used together with Household Hunger Score (HHS)
• • The recall period of rCSI is only seven days, and food security situation is likely to change relatively quickly especially in volatile contexts. rCSI is affected by seasonality, shocks and the overall vulnerability context and data on rCSI is likely not to reflect the current conditions if there have been changes in these conditions after the last data collection.

When to use it/when not to use it:

Use it for monitoring purposes and in early onset of food security crises. Use it together with other evidence, esp. with HHS, in severe and protracted food security crisis situations.

Core: Y/N

Yes

IPC Categories:

Food Consumption Outcome

M&E: IMPACT, OUTCOME, OUTPUT, PROCESS

Impact/Outcome

Recall?

7 days

Link to guidance

Indikit