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Abstract
How did the upsurge in food price inflation in 2007-2009 and the 2008-2009 economic
down affect experiences of household hunger according to recent Generalized Household
Surveys? Findings from the 2008 round of the GHS, a large nationally representative survey
conducted annually by the official statistical agency, show an unsurprising rise in household
experiences of hunger in the order of 2-3 percentage points. But this merely captured the
early onset of two intersecting crises, excluding the dramatic rise in job losses recorded even
as the recovery got underway. An in-depth exploration of this dataset and comparing its
findings to similar household cohorts for the 2006 and 2007 rounds of the GHS show that
female-headed households suffered more than male-headed households. We investigate 3
determinants of household food security status: location (geography and dwelling type), main
household income sources and adult equivalent expenditure patterns (including food
spending) to demonstrate this result. During the year preceding the crises, spending on food
increased across female-headed households reporting never, moderately and seriously hungry
adults. However, the expenditure shares were falling, and this is usually perceived as a sign of
rising levels of household welfare. Focusing on the first year of the crises, the complete
opposite picture emerges: female-headed households substantially raised the amount of
money spend on food. At the same time, the share of food expenditure in their total
spending basket dramatically increased. This suggests that households were switching larger
portions of their total household spending towards food- signaling a coping strategy to
counter a severe livelihood shock. The policy implication is that gender-based targeting in
food security policies must incorporate these additional determinants if they are to
effectively and sustainably address transitory food insecurity induced by similar livelihood
shocks.