Understanding food and nutrition security and vulnerability has always been challenging. Yet the emergence of relatively new phenomena such as recent high food and fuel prices, the global financial crisis, and climate change, all highlight the need to better understand the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable population so that effective policies and actions can be implemented to save lives and address the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity.

This report, built on this experience, will guide readers, planners and decision makers to get snapshot answers to the five key questions of who are the people currently facing food insecurity and malnutrition; how many are they; where do they live; why are they food insecure and/or malnourished and; how can food assistance and other interventions make a difference in reducing poverty, hunger and supporting livelihoods.

The CFSVA & NS was possible due to the generous support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Ministry of Local Government and Administration for their inputs during the preparation of the data collection tools and the participation in the field work