Conceptualizing hunger dynamics: a critical examination of two famine early warning methodologies in Zimbabwe

In the wake of droughts in the African Sahel in the 1970s, 19808 and 1990s, international organizations, bilateral donors, African governments and non -governmental organizations set up a number of early warning systems to mon itor food security. The objective of this paper is to assess the strengths, weaknesses and conceptual validity of two new famine early warning systems that are being applied in Zimbabwe - the Save the Children Fund-United Kin gdom's household food economy approach and the US Agency for International Development Famine Early Warning System's maize equivalency approach. The p aper suggests that both approaches are part of a 'third wave of innovation' in the development of early warning methodologies. While both systems shar e much in common, there are also important differences between them in the way they assemble information and conceptualize hunger. When the two method s were employed in Manjolo Communal Area of Zimbabwe for the 1996/97 period , they produced significantly different food deficit estimates. The diverge nt deficit predictions are explained by conceptual differences between the two programmes, including differences in unit of analysis, selection and re lative weight accorded to data parameters, income group disaggregation, and distinctions between purchased and non-purchased food. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.