A Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) provides an in-depth picture of the food security situation and the vulnerability of households in a given country. It is conducted in countries subject to recurrent crises.
It answers the following key questions:
Ø Who are the food-insecure and vulnerable people?
Ø How many are there?
Ø Where do they live?
Ø Why are they food-insecure?
Ø What is the appropriate assistance to reduce vulnerability and food insecurity?
A CFSVA provides a breadth of information on the political, socio-economic and agro-ecological context, food supplies, markets, livelihoods, coping strategies, nutrition, health, education, etc. The analysis:
Ø identifies the root causes of food insecurity and vulnerability;
Ø provides an in-depth profile of food-insecure and vulnerable people, and their livelihoods;
Ø provides an analysis of markets, their functioning and price trends in the country;
Ø includes an analysis of risk (hazards, natural disasters, economic shocks, etc) and their potential impact on the most vulnerable.
This type of analysis is also refered to as pre-crisis baseline study, as it is conducted at normal times, and not during a crisis. Knowing where the most vulnerable people are located and what causes their vulnerability facilitates the drawing-up of the first emergency needs assessments after a crisis strikes.
Since 2004, WFP has completed more than 35 baseline surveys worldwide.
