Finding Meaning in Our Measures: Overcoming Challenges to Quantitative Food Security Assessments
Event Details
- Date: 2/9/2015
- Location: Economic Research Service<br>355 E St. SW<br>1st Floor Conference Room<br>Washington, DC
Description
Assessments of undernourishment at the country, household, and individual level have faced both conceptual and measurement challenges. This workshop will highlight how ERS and other researchers are addressing these challenges to help policymakers. The first keynote address and panel will focus on improvements in traditional estimates of undernourishment at the national level to better capture the distribution of calorie consumption within each country. In particular, the keynote address will highlight the proposed changes to the ERS international food security assessment to better identify the vulnerable population of low-income countries. The second keynote speaker and panel will highlight recent advances in conceptualizing and measuring undernourishment, with implications for future assessments.
Agenda
Finding Meaning in Our Measures: Overcoming Challenges to Quantitative Food Security Assessments
9:00-9:30 a.m. Registration
9:30-9:35 a.m. Introductory Remarks, Mary Bohman (ERS)
9:35-10:00 a.m. Introduction of Key Issues, Julie Howard (Independent Consultant)
10:00-10:45 a.m. Keynote Speaker 1: John Beghin (Iowa State University), Introduction to USDA’s International Food Security Assessment and the Adaptation of the Micro-Foundations of the Model
10:45-11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Panel 1: Further Adaptations of Traditional Estimates of Undernourishment
a. Discussant - Shahla Shapouri (ERS)
b. Carlo Cafiero - FAO
c. Daniel Mason-D'Croz - IFPRI
d. Mark Nord - FAO
12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00-2:45 p.m. Keynote Speaker 2: Chris Barrett (Cornell University), Food Security as Resilience: Reconciling Definition with Measurement
2:45-4:15 p.m. Panel 2: Advancements in the Measurement of Food Security
a. Discussant - James Oehmke (USAID)
b. Anna D'Souza - Baruch
c. Joanna Upton - Cornell
d. Sharad Tandon - ERS
4:15-4:30 p.m. Concluding Remarks, Gopinath Munisamy (ERS)