SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS
Overall, in Round 11, food insecurity has stabilized at high levels similar to the previous three rounds (between November 2020 and February 2021), as shown by a relatively low proportion of households classified as having acceptable food consumption. This is likely in large part due to a lack of food diversification during the month of March, when many households had not yet started consuming from this year’s production.
The proportion of households who are employing the most severe consumptionbased coping strategies has remained high at similar levels with Rounds 6-9 (October 2020 – February 2021), indicating the prevalence of food insecurity during the period of data collection.
Households’ reported access to markets has improved from 55 percent in Round 1 to 57 percent in the current round, which is 3 percentage points down from Round 10. By March, households across the country typically lack money after spending most of their income on the purchase of inputs for production during the farming season. This, in part, explains the reduced access to markets captured in this current round as compared to the previous round.
This month, the trend illustrates a continued increase in the number of reported cases of fever and coughing, with nearly 69 percent and 50 percent of surveyed households stating that at least a member of their family experienced a fever and cough, respectively during Round 11. During this same period, however, the proportion of households who reported that one or more members of their household experienced difficulty breathing declined by 3 percentage points. While this trend can be partially attributed to the uptick in COVID-19 positive cases, a rise in fevers and coughs during the rainy season is typical and thus other causes cannot be ruled out.
Source: World Food Programme