Tracking the Development of Urban Food Security Assessment Tools: 2010 to 2015

This desk review is a key deliverable of the “Adapting to an Urban World” project co-managed by the Global Food Security Cluster (gFSC) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The objective of this second desk review, therefore, is to track progress by the humanitarian community on urban food security assessment tool development. Specifically, the review verifies whether the challenges and recommendations contained in the baseline have been addressed through the development, field-testing and subsequent standardization of urban food security assessment tools.

This paper unfolds by briefly articulating its methodology, followed by an examination of the meanings of urban and household within the context of assessing urban food security. The succeeding sections are focused on an examination of the evolution of guidance for assessing income and expenditure, food consumption and coping strategies as key indicators of household food security, and finally, sampling, conclusions and recommendations.