Researchers from the Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) provide an overview of the state of food security and nutrition in Myanmar using household dataset collected in four quarters of 2022. We examine food security using the household hunger scale and the food consumption score. To examine the state of nutrition, we examine the diet quality of individuals across Myanmar for three separate but important sections of population: (1) adults (18+ years), (2) women of reproductive age (15-49 years), and (3) children (6-23 and 24-59 months). We explore these indicators using four rounds of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) collected over the phone from December 2021 to December 2022 – hereafter Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 – among over 12,000 households in 310 townships of Myanmar. Data collection was spread out over 2022 which helps us to understand the dynamic nature of food security and nutrition in Myanmar in a time marred by internal conflict and global price hikes as a result of the Ukraine war.
Key findings
• The state of food security and nutrition has deteriorated in Myanmar in 2022.
• Four percent of households were in moderate to severe hunger in October/December 2022. Hunger was highest in Chin (10 percent), Mon (6.8 percent), and Kayin (6 percent).
• Households with a low food consumption score increased from 9.4 percent in December 2021/February 2022 to 15.7 percent in October/December 2022. The shares in October/December were highest in Chin (48.3 percent), Kayin (23.1 percent), and Magway (22.7 percent).
• Inadequate diet diversity among adults rose from 20.6 percent to 25.1 percent over the same period with rates higher for women, especially in rural areas.
• Decreases in diet quality among adults is driven by lower consumption of milk and dairy products as well as Vitamin A rich fruits, meat, fish, and eggs.
• More than a third of all children aged 6-23 months and 15.9 percent of all children aged 24-59 months have inadequate diet quality.
• Regression analysis reveals low income and limited assets to be important risk factors for food security and adequate diet quality. Wage workers and low wage communities are found to be particularly vulnerable. Rising food prices, conflict and physical insecurity increase the likelihood of poor diet quality.
• Receiving remittances is a source of resilience; remittance-receiving households are less likely to experience hunger or poor dietary diversity at the household, adult, and child level.
Recommended actions
• Expanded implementation of nutrition-sensitive social protection programs, including maternal and child cash transfers, particularly to vulnerable groups is called for.
• Given the importance of remittances as an effective coping mechanism, supporting migration and the flow of remittances would help to improve the welfare of the Myanmar population.
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