#ms01: Food Access (MAHFP)

Food access is one of the core dimensions of WHH's sustainable food and nutrition security (SFNS) approach. Food access depends on the ability of households to obtain food either independently (from their own production, stocks, purchases or gathering efforts) or through food transfers (from relatives, members of the community, the government, or donors). A household’s access to food is also affected by the resources available to household members and the steps they must take to obtain those resources, particularly the exchange of other goods and services. The MAHFP indicator represents the ability to acquire a sufficient quantity of food to meet all household members’ needs.

The MAHFP assesses the number of months in which households reported having access to sufficient food. WHH has consciously chosen not to prescribe criteria for the definition of food sufficiency. Whether or not a month is considered as food sufficient is decided by the respondents themselves. 

Collect the following data by conducting individual interviews with a representative sample (WHH sampling guidelines) of the households targeted in your project.

Questions should be addressed to one member of each sampled household, namely the person (adult) who is responsible for food preparation in the household.

This indicator requires a baseline and comparison value(s) to yield interesting information on project outcomes. At minimum, it should therefore be collected as part of both a baseline and an endline survey. A mid-term survey is optional.

• More information: #ms01 MAHFP Handbook (EN)
• External resources: FANTA Guide MAHFP (EN)

Disaggregate the data by gender, wealth, location or other relevant criteria.

This is a 'Measuring Success' (#ms) indicator. It is obligatory for all WHH projects to integrate all #ms indicators that align with the project context, with a minimum requirement of utilizing at least one indicator (and implementing one #ms qualitative tool).

1) Data for the #ms MAHFP indicator can be collected at any time of the year. Results may vary according to the seasons; if these data are collected during the period of the greatest food shortage, or immediately prior to the harvest, the reported number of months in which the household did not have enough food may be greater than if collected at a different time of the year. 

2) Please note that baseline and endline data collection should always be undertaken at the same time of the year.

3) Prior to data collection, enumerators should attend a short practical training session. Points to emphasize:

• Before starting data collection, provide a guideline by explaining what it typically means in your particular context to not have enough food.
• It is crucial to ask probing questions and to help people think back twelve months. The local population might not be used to calendars. In this case, train enumerators to use a seasonal calendar to help respondents remember the different months.
• The list of months should not be read out aloud; instead, the box should be ticked if the respondent identifies that month as one in which the household did not have enough food to meet their needs as she or he speaks.
• Enumerators should probe for precise answers. If a respondent says that she or he did not have enough food from June to September, they need to ask when exactly this period began (for example: was it before or after a certain public holiday?).
• Partial months should be rounded up to the nearest whole number if totaling more than 14 days and down if totaling 14 days or fewer.