The average for 2021 based on 10 countries was 89.847 index points. The highest value was in Singapore: 130.75 index points and the lowest value was in India: 58.17 index points. The indicator is available from 2017 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The inflation rate for both Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean reached more than 12 percent in 2023. Among the provided continents or regions, Asia and the Pacific had the lowest inflation rate that year. Consumer prices increased around the world following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Inflation and food security Increases in food costs are one of the most prominent impacts of inflation globally. In the United Kingdom, for example, consumers have indicated that they have worried more about food costs in 2023 than in previous years. Meanwhile, in Canada, only a small fraction of survey respondents have said that inflation has had little impact on household food costs. Consumers have responded to rising food costs through various coping mechanisms. For example, Italian consumers have indicated that they purchase less unnecessary products, cut down on waste, and buy more discounted items in order to save costs. Changing consumer behvaiors Outside of food consumption, consumers have changed their purchasing behaviors with other types of goods and services. Surveying has indicated that nearly 60 percent of consumers have adjusted their shopping habits due to inflation. When holiday shopping in 2023, over 50 percent of Americans and over one third of British consumers said inflation had considerable impact on their holiday shopping. By generation, the Millenial generation has suffered the most due to rising inflation, while older generations have experienced less serious impacts.

Abstract

The overall objective of this survey is to provide broad and up-to-date baseline information on food production and household food security for the implementation of the Sierra Leone PRSP. The principal aspects covered by the study are local farm production, trading of food in rural areas, access of rural households to food, utilisation of food at the household level including nutrition and health aspects, and vulnerability of the rural population to the various facets of food insecurity.

This research process was divided into three separate but complementary surveys that covered the same households in sampled districts: Farm Production Survey, Food Security and vulnerability survey and a Nutrition and health in women and young children. The objective of the combined surveys was to provide insight on a wide range of factors that influence the degree of food security or vulnerability to food insecurity for rural households and will provide guidance for the policies that should be implemented in order to achieve the overall targets set by the PRSP.

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Household
• Community

Universe

The survey covered all household heads and women (with anthropometric measurements taken on both women 15-49 years of age and children 0-59 months old) in each sampled household.

A household is defined as a person or a group of persons related or unrelated, living together or not, making common cooking arrangements and under the authority of the same household head.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The survey used a two-stage cluster sampling strategy. Statistics Sierra Leone (Statistic SL) helped to design of the sample frame, based on recent pre-census data that provided information on settlement names, populations, household sizes. Statistics SL grouped communities, consisting either of one larger village or several smaller settlements located in close proximity, into Enumeration Areas (EAs) that could be treated as the basic clusters. Codes were available for all EAs and GPS coordinates for the sampled communities were to be recorded during the survey.

The aim of the sampling strategy was to obtain at representative results at the district level, now known as Local Council Areas. Population figures from the recent pre-census were available only at Chiefdom level, but not for individual EAs.

Due to the lack of accurate population figures at EA level it was decided to apply the Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) method at Chiefdom level, meaning that the more populated Chiefdoms had a higher probability of selection. In each Local Council Area (LCA) approximately half of the Chiefdoms (on average 45%) were selected. The few larger urban-type settlements outside of Freetown were excluded from the selection process. In a second step, five EAs (communities) per Chiefdom were selected using simple random sampling techniques. The total number of EAs (or clusters in statistical terms) per Local Council Area was 25, with a total sample size of approximately 4500 households for food security and farm production, and 5600 for nutrition and health.

The sampling procedures used at EA (community) level are as follows: · Within the EA, household lists were created by the survey teams with assistance from the village leaders and then a sample of 12 households was selected using a random number draw. · As it can be assumed that a large proportion of the households were engaged in farming as primary or secondary occupation, and thus there was no need to differentiate between farming/non-farming families when selecting the households to be interviewed. If families without agriculture, livestock or fisheries activities were encountered, the farm production questionnaire was simply left blank (except for some general information).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

Household Questionnaire: Demography; Housing and household facilities; Assets; Main sources of income; expenditure; Food consumption; shocks and coping strategies; land ownership and use; Household land ownership and us; Cropping system; Water and sanitation; Crops harvested last season; Food and cash crops sold; Livestock, Fisheries; Maternal health and nutrition; Child health and nutrition.

Community Questionnaire: Demography; Economy and infrastructure; education; health; agriculture; trading of food and cash crops; seasonal availability of main food crops and price trends.