Measuring food insecurity is a costly and complicated exercise. In highly food insecure
countries operational agencies need regular measurements for monitoring changes and for
assessing the impact of food aid interventions. Often these interventions take place in
emergency conditions. Time is limited, and field conditions do not permit lengthy and
intensive data collection or analysis processes. Tools are needed that are quick and easy to
administer, straightforward to analyze, and rapid enough to provide real-time information to
programme managers. The Coping Strategies Index (CSI) is one such tool. It was developed
in Uganda and Ghana but has been for early warning and food security assessment in
several other African countries, including Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Zambia,
Malawi and Burundi.
The Coping Strategies Index (CSI) is an indicator of household food security that is relatively
simple and quick to use, straightforward to understand, and correlates well with more
complex measures of food security. A series of questions about how households manage to
cope with a shortfall in food for consumption results in a simple numeric score. In its simplest
form, monitoring changes in the CSI score indicates whether household food security status
in declining or improving. It is much quicker, simpler, and cheaper to collect information on
coping strategies than on actual household food consumption levels. Hence, the CSI is an
appropriate tool for emergency situations when other methods are simply not practical or
timely.