Introduction
The Food Security and Livelihoods handbook was designed and implemented by the Programme Quality Working Group as part of the Global Food Security Cluster. The handbook is designed to assist both technical and non-technical food security members on a core number of food security indicators. The list is not exhaustive, but represents a set of core indicators as agreed upon by the group. The indicators cover a variety of key components of food security, including contributing factors, outcome indicators, monitoring and evaluation and learning, and nutrition and mortality.
Target Audience
These guidelines are intended for Food Security Cluster team members (cluster/ sector coordinators, information managers, and assessment and database focal points) as well as other field practitioners involved in a food security cluster or in-country coordination mechanism, with the objective of ensuring an effective and coordinated food security response.
This document aims to provide the user with operational flexibility in the choice and management of indicators, which can be adapted to context-specific needs and objectives. These guidelines do not provide exhaustive recommendations on the setup of data collection and data management tools and users of these guidelines should therefore be well versed in setting up and managing information management mechanisms and in creating the framework for the reporting and analysis of any data collected.
The Role of the Indicators
Indicators are key to provide evidence-based data to inform the decision-making of cluster members and to improve accountability. The use of indicators also allows data collection to be conducted in a systematic manner, in accordance with recognised standards. Indicators are also necessary to enable reliable and consistent reporting of quantifiable data that inform food security actions and measure output, outcome and impact along the HPC.
Standardized indicators enable data reported by country-level clusters to be both comparable and informative to the reporting objectives of the global-level cluster. The ability to utilize indicators according to the various stages of the HPC gives the Food Security Cluster the potential to tailor its information management to the changing requirements as the emergency situation evolves
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Framework
PQWG Co-Chair: Matthew Day
PQWG Co-Chair: Julie March
gFSC Focal Point: Davide Rossi and Pardie Karamanoukian
