COPING STRATEGIES AMONG THE FOOD-INSECURE HOUSEHOLD IN MALAWI, A CASE OF FEMALE AND MALE-HEADED HOUSEHOLD IN SOUTH EASTERN OF MALAWI

Year 2017, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 91 - 107, 01.02.2017

Hannah Mayamiko Dunga Steven Henry Dunga

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a serious concern in most developing countries. The fact
that so many households are considered to be food insecure makes pertinent the
question as to how these households survive. As food is vital for survival, there is
always a minimum amount of food that is needed albeit small and within the food
insecurity category. Households that are food insecure use different strategies in
order to cope with their situation. There are varied coping strategies that can be
applied by the head of household to ration or prioritise who should eat what,
when and what amount. The study uses a questionnaire to collect data collected
from Malawi in the Eastern region of the country which is among the regions that
are characterized by food insecurity. The data is used to assess the coping
strategies used by different households, and understand what determines the
chosen coping strategy for a given household.
The results of the statistical analysis showed that, food insecure households
employed more coping strategies than the food secure households. The regression
results show that gender, location, employment status and income are all
significant predictors of household vulnerability. The results also show that
female heads of households are more vulnerable than the male counterparts. The
study, therefore puts to the fore the need to address gender disparities in the effort
to deal with food security, and poverty in general.

Keywords

Households, food security, coping strategies, vulnerability, survival