Using high-frequency data to validate the resilience metrics for food security and women dietary diversity amidst Covid-19 in Uganda

Project Summary

Principal investigator(s):

Annet Adong Center for Development Research, University of Bonn

Doctorate:

University of Bonn, Germany

Duration:

12 months (from September 2021)

Value:

£50,000

Countries of research:

Uganda

Home mentor: Bernard Bashaasha, Makerere University

Host mentor: Joachim von Braun, Center for Development Research, University of Bonn

Bio:
Annet Adong is currently a Post-Doctoral Researcher affiliated with the Center for Population and Applied Statistics, Makerere University and Center for Development Research, University of Bonn. Her areas of research include Agriculture and Nutrition and Conflicts and Displacement. She explored the Consequences of Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacement on consumption pathways and Social preferences for her Ph.D.

Project summary:
In 2008, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) introduced the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) technique to measure household resilience to shocks and stressors that may cause food and nutrition insecurity. In 2013, the Technical Working Group on Resilience Measurement set up by FAO, IFPRI, and WFP updated RIMA to RIMA-II, de-linking food and nutrition security from resilience capacity. Although other techniques for measuring resilience in development economics exist, many recent published studies have relied on the RIMA-II approach using annual panel data. I validate RIMA-II metrics by examining its reliability to measure periodic household resilience to food and nutrition security and any changes within the year when exposed to multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic. I use a high-frequency survey in which households are visited every two months for a year to collect information on shocks, changes in asset acquisition, changes in income, women’s diets, and consumption expenditure. I propose to corroborate RIMA-II with qualitative measures of resilience and examine whether observed household resilience affects women's dietary diversity. This research is part of a broader research collaboration between the Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn, and the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics, Makerere University.

Briefing note:

Using High Frequency Data to examine Resilience and Women Dietary Diversity in Uganda

Publications:

Conflict exposure and food consumption pathways during and after conflict: Evidence from Northern Uganda (2021)