Poverty and Household Food Insecurity in Mongolia

1
Poverty and Household Food Insecurity in Mongolia

• Dalaijamts Chimeddulam1, Guushir Dalaijamts2,
  Helga Bardos3, Tserendorj Tsevegdorj1
• 1 School of Public Health, Health Sciences
  University of Mongolia, 2 National Human Rights
  Commission of Mongolia, 3 School of Public
  Health, Health University of Debrecen, Hungary

Background
Materials and Method
Results

In Mongolia there are two main factors
influencing the stability of the food supply.
They are the prevailing economic conditions and
the frequent natural disasters. Additionally,
these phenomenon are often interrelated and
result in a compounding effect when either
element is adversely effected. Because of the
economic transition that followed the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the rate of food production has
decreased to half of 1995 levels. Mongolian
agriculture consists of animal husbandry and
cultivation. Both depend on the climatic
conditions of the country. In the past few years
the headcount of livestock has been reduced by 30
per cent following dzuds (conditions which reduce
available food for livestock, such as drought).
Large losses, therefore, will have direct and
severe impact on household food security for a
large numbers of herders, especially those in
remote areas. These factors influence not only
the national food supply, but also the livelihood
of the population in both the urban and rural
areas. Around one third of Mongolians live in
poverty, which is defined as the inability to
afford a basket of basic food and non-food items.
A reduction in household income naturally leads
to a shortage of food.
A cross-sectional survey was used to assess the
perceptions of socio-economic changes, food
insecurity in national and household levels, and
their health impact. Questionnaires were
completed to identify the situation of household
food security and social support. The unit of
study was the household. To categorize households
by income level, we used a poverty line that
equals approximately 0.75-1.2 USD per person per
household per day. Households with income lower
than the poverty level were considered poor,
households with income per capita lower than 40
of the poverty level or cannot provide food needs
by the adult equivalents consumption expenditure
were considered extremely poor. Using a
systematic multistage random sampling method, a
total of 731 households were selected from the
capital city Ulaanbaatar and four other aimags
(administration units), representing four
geographic regions for the study. The proportion
of the urban to rural households was equal in the
study.
One third of the total households were
categorized as living in severe food insecurity
with hunger. Only 11 of total households were
categorized as being food secure and the
remaining were food insecure without hunger or
with moderate hunger. (Figure 2)
Fig. 2 Food insecurity status level
Sample unit by urban and rural areas
Table 1
The study revealed that 46.1 of the total
households sometimes did not have enough food to
eat during the last 12 months. Food insufficiency
over the past 12 months was significantly
correlated with lower income (r0.36, Plt0.0001).
Because of food insufficiency, children of poor
households live and grow in a condition of
hunger. For example, 87.4 of the total
households could not feed their children a daily
balanced meal while 85.8 of the total households
could not afford adequate food.
In the questionnaire, food security status was
evaluated using the 18-question U.S. Food
Security Survey Module 15. The questionnaire
was further modified by questions on
socioeconomic conditions, food consumption, and
awareness of the householders (Appendix 1.). The
questionnaire consists of 32 questions divided
into three parts, including 1.Questions about
socioeconomic status 2.Questions about food
supply, consumption and related knowledge and
3.Questions to assess household food security
status. The responses to the 18-item food
security survey module were used to construct the
12-month food security scale and to classify the
households into four categories of food security
status according to the U.S. food security scale.
(Table 2) Quantitative data analysis was
performed using SPSS version 11.0 and Stata 8.0.
Descriptive statistics were used to estimate the
central tendency of the distribution of each
variable. The relationships between food
insecurity and household variables were analyzed
using the Pearsons product-moment correlation.
ANOVA, chi-square, or multiple linear regressions
were used for the continuous measure of food
insecurity.
Table 3. Multiple linear regression of FISSa by
the following factors
Significant associations with food insecurity,
after controlling for confounding factors, were
household income, poverty, food expenditure,
urban and rural areas, education, and sex of
householders. The largest association for food
insecurity was found to be the income of
household. (beta-0.489 95 CI -0.540, -0.398).
(Table 3)
Purpose and Hypothesis
Twenty eight percent of Mongolians are
malnourished. Malnutrition results from poor food
quality and quantity. This has been an ongoing
problem in particular groups throughout Mongolia.
Fig. 1 Food Supply (measured as kcal/person/day)
and Undernourishment
a Dependent Variable Food insecurity status
(continuous) b Adjusted by poverty, food
expenditure, unemployment, age and regions
Despite data suggesting the persistent nature of
the problem, there are no regulatory measures to
enhance accessibility and quality of food in
Mongolia. Furthermore, there is no information
that provides a direct and ongoing measure of
food security. The aim of this study was to
document household food insecurity of poor
households in relation to the poverty level.
Multiple linear regression analysis was used for
analysis, independent factors included in the
model were poverty level of the households,
unemployment, number of children, region and food
expenditure. An a.05 was utilized.
Conclusion
Table 2 Household Food Security Status -
Categorical Measure
Food insecurity with hunger in the households
(representing one third of the surveyed
households) is significantly related to poverty
of the households. Following reduction of
household income, consumption of highly
nutritious food decreases resulting in poor
households lacking access to sufficient quantity
of and quality of food. Children of poor
households appear more vulnerable to food
insufficiency caused by poverty. Nevertheless,
the government does not have any legal obligation
to provide food security to the poor population.
From the results of this study, we recommend
developing comprehensive policies and strategies
to address all aspects of food security issues
and to pay more attention to provide access to
food, encourage self production, and to
increase the purchasing capacity by alleviating
poverty. The government should be responsible to
provide access to adequate food for citizens,
especially vulnerable and poor people and to
provide food security and to expand this
household food insecurity study and to focus on
various vulnerable groups of population, and to
study the association of household food
insecurity with human nutritional status.
Literature Cited
Acknowledgements
Mongolia Food Crisis. Global information and
early warning system on food and agriculture,
FAO, CiDi, Special alert No. 303, 10 March
2000. Millennium Development Goals. Goal 1.
Reduce poverty and hunger. National report of on
the status of implementation in Mongolia,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2004. G., Nord M., Price
C., Hamilton W. Cook, J. (2000) Measuring Food
Security in the United States. Guide to Measuring
Household Food Security, revised 2000. Food and
Nutrition Service, Office of Analysis, Nutrition,
and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Alexandria, VA.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the time and
effort given by the colleagues of National Human
Rights Commission of Mongolia and other
researchers to our studies. The study was
supported by a UNDP project on improvement of
capacity of National Human Rights Commission of
Mongolia. We are also thankful to the Academic
Fellowship Program, Higher Education Support
Program, OSI for its financial support on the
attendance of the APHA 136th Annual Meeting.