Understanding linkages among food availability, access, consumption and nutrition in Africa : empirical findings and issues from the literature

Recognizing that the links from food availability to access to consumption to nutritional status are not automatic, the challenge for food policy makers is to understand how these variables are linked to one another, how closely they are related in different contexts, and what the other important intervening variables are. To examine these issues, this paper brings together empirical findings from studies conducted in Africa and reviews the methods and analytic approaches used in generating these findings. Two important themes emerge. (1) Gains in food access, consumption, and nutritional status may depend more on how gains in food availability, access, and consumption are achieved than on whether they are achieved. Increased food availability, for example, may not increase access to food if achieved by means that reduce family income; increased access may not increase consumption if the allocation of time or income by food providers, usually women, is adversely affected; and increased consumption may not improve nutrition if the means by which consumption gains are realized have negative health effects that impair the body"s ability to absorb and utilize ingested nutrients. (2) More attention should be focused on methodological issues. Particularly important are indicator relevance, data reliability, sample selection and aggregation, requirement norms, unobserved variables, and choice of statistical constructs. Policy and research implications are discussed in conclusion. The paper includes references and case examples from Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda.