RESUMO
In Ethiopia, food security and vulnerability assessments have traditionally focused on rural areas. Recently, the issue of urban food security has been attracting attention in global policy debates. However, limited studies are found in the study areas that link food insecurity with major food market chains in the urban food system settings. This study is therefore, aimed at measuring the status of food insecurity in the urban food systems. A mixed study design has been used with randomly selected 506 resident households in Dessie and Combolcha cities, of north-central Ethiopia. We used a pre-tested, semi-structured survey questionnaire to collect quantitative data. The qualitative data has been collected with key informant interview, and focus group discussion among food system actors and facilitators in the selected commodities. We applied Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) to measure the food security status and narration and summarization techniques to analyze the qualitative data. The study confirmed that 33.1% of the respondents were food insecure. Moreover, nine and six individuals per 100 people were forced to 'sleep hungry' and 'not eat in the whole day and night' respectively. Households' food insecurity was significantly associated with the gender of the household head, participation in casual labor, and living house ownership. The degree of food insecurity was deemed to be higher due to weak food system governance, an inconsistent food supply chain, and socio-economic and gender inequalities. However, both formal and informal food systems have their own unique qualities and maximum food security benefit can be achieved if they are well integrated. This implies food security intervention in urban areas needs to refocus their strategies towards systematic and integrated approaches that can promote social security programs like: urban housing, job security, urban agriculture and inclusive food safety net programs. Moreover, multidimensional studies are still important to obtain a wider picture of sustainable urban food security in urban areas and to better integrate the formal and informal food systems.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation of child dietary diversity and household food insecurity along with other socio-demographic with child anthropometric indices in north-central Ethiopia, an area with a high level of food insecurity and inadequate diet quality. DESIGN: A community-based cross-sectional study was used. SETTINGS: The study was conducted in Dessie and Combolcha towns of north-central Ethiopia from April to May 2018. PARTICIPANTS: Randomly selected 512 mother-child pairs with child's age range of 6-59 months. RESULTS: The mean (± SD) scores of weight-for-height/length, height/length-for-age, weight-for-age, and BMI-for-age Z-scores were 1.35 (± 2.03), - 1.89 (± 1.79), 0.05 (± 1.54), and 1.39 (± 2.06), respectively. From all anthropometric indicators, stunting and overweight/obesity remained the severe public issues hitting 43% and 42% of the children, respectively. In the model, mothers' age and education and child's age, sex, and dietary diversity were significantly related with child height-for-age Z-score while place of residence, sex of household head, child's age, and dietary diversity score were the predictors of child BMI-for-age Z-score in the urban contexts of the study area. Nevertheless, food insecurity was not related to any of the child anthropometric indices. CONCLUSION: The double burden of malnutrition epidemics (stunting and obesity) coexisted as severe public health concerns in urban settings. Anthropometric statuses of children were affected by multidimensional factors and seek strong integration and immediate intervention of multiple sectors.