Presentation "Food Consumption and Food Security during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Addis Ababa" by Kalle Hirvoven, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

2. Food Consumption and Food
Security during the COVID-19
Pandemic in Addis Ababa
Kalle Hirvonen
International Food Policy Research Institute
with Gashaw Tadesse Abate (IFPRI) & Alan de Brauw (IFPRI)
11 December 2020

3. Background
▪ Considering the population of 100+ million, Ethiopia has managed to keep
COVID-19 infection rates relatively low:
o First 3-4 months: very slow increase in COVID-19 cases.
o December 7: 113,735 tested positive; 80,803 recovered; and 1,755 deaths.
o Most cases have been in the capital, Addis Ababa.
▪ Rapid government response after 3 days of the first confirmed case
- Social distancing measures (school closure, banning large gathering, etc.)
- Awareness creation on preventive measures (hand washing, facemasks, etc.)
- State of Emergency declared (e.g., with provisions that prevent layoffs, eviction of
tenants)
- Social protection response (i.e., expanding the Urban-PSNP; new food banks)
▪ The country never went into a full lockdown severely restricting movement

4. Phone Surveys
▪ Building on a recent large, representative household survey in Addis Ababa
administered in October 2019 and February 2020.
▪ Phone survey conducted in early May with 600 households, follow up in
June, July and August (low attrition rates; < 5 %).
▪ Focus on (self reported) income changes & food and nutrition security.
▪ Comprehensive food consumption modules administered in October 2019,
February 2020 and August 2020.
RCT Phone surveys
Baseline End-line R1 R2 R3 R4
(Sep 2019) (Feb 2020) (May 2020) (June 2020) (July 2020) (Aug 2020)

5. During the COVID-19 pandemic in May, June & July:
▪ High adherence to the
recommended practices
to mitigate the
transmission risk.
▪ In all 3 rounds, at least
35% of respondents
report being extremely
stressed (0-10 scale).
Stress levels
considerably higher
among the poorer
households.

6. All rounds: More than 50 % report a loss in income
Change in income levels compared to usual incomes

7. No changes in household dietary diversity score (HDDS)
▪ HDDS = A widely used
measure of food security.
▪ Group food consumption
into 12 food groups
(cereals, vegetables, fruits,
meat, eggs, dairy, etc.).
▪ Score ranges between 1
and 12 with higher values
indicating better food &
nutrition security.

8. No changes in household food consumption budgets

9. Composition of food consumption budgets
▪ A shift from some relatively expensive calories (e.g., vegetables) to
cheaper ones (e.g., staples):
o consumption of staples increased
o consumption of pulses and vegetables decreased
o no significant change in other food categories
o same story if we measure consumption in calories
▪ Disaggregated analysis show no/minimal difference in composition of
consumption between households:
o “income loss” vs. “no income loss”
o “job loss” vs. “no job loss”

10. Summary and conclusions
▪ Very high self-reported stress levels, concentrated among the relatively poor
▪ In each round, more than 50% of households report a loss in income
▪ Despite this, we see little/no changes in household food consumption levels
or dietary diversity when we compare the phone survey data collected in
August 2020 to the data collected before the pandemic in September 2019.
➢The initial COVID-19 shock in Addis Ababa was temporary and most
households were able to cope relatively well using savings or income from
safety nets (Urban-PSNP) and other support systems.
➢ Suggestive/indirect evidences: (i) the need for better measurement of
income loss and its magnitude; (ii) food value chains have largely been
resilient to the pandemic.

11. More info and recording
of this webinar:
https://bit.ly/COVID-FVC