WFP launches urban food security study

Under the research project, principal data will be collected through a representatives household survey of households dwelling in slum areas in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna cities, WFP media release said.

Announcing the study here yesterday WFP Representative Douglas Broderick said, "With the urban food security study, the understanding of the hunger and food security in Bangladesh will be much more comprehensive. The study I hope will help our development partners and GoB agencies in targeting their development interventions for the urban poor."

The WFP will undertake this new urban food security study with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics(BBS) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA.

The principal investigator of the study, Todd Benson of IFPRI, has informed a workshop at IDB Bhaban here that three analyses will be undertaken using the survey data, food security profile of urban slum dwellers, small area estimation of food security status, and modeling the determinants of food security for urban slum households.

The WFP in collaboration with Planning Commission and BBS undertook a rural food security study in 2004. The study identified 150 upazilas out of 490 with very high rates of poverty, where more than 45 percent population consumes less than 1,805 kcal per capita per day.

Malnutrition rates in Bangladesh are amongst the highest in the world approximately 50 percent of children under five have been found stunted and underweight.

The research team shared the draft questionnaire with the participants in the workshop. The questionnaire contains modules on household composition, education, employment and occupations, housing, food expenditures, non-food expenditures and other factors.

The findings and data of the study will be publicly disseminated in Bangladesh in October and November 2006.