Characterisation by asset ownership Characterisation by demographics

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8.3.2 Characterisation by asset ownership

43 Across residence groups, 37 percent of the households are regarded as having poor asset holding 22 percent in urban, 40 percent in rural and 60 percent among the Kuchi households. Households dependent on Zakat, farm wage labour opium and non-opium, non-farm wage labour, shepherding wage labour and borrowing are among those with the highest proportion of asset poverty. Across livelihood groups, the ownership of household assets closely correlate with the level of food insecurity, except for those dependent on shepherding wage labour, and production and sale of livestock who have a high percentage of households with poor asset holding, yet the proportion of food-insecure households among them is relatively low Table 8.4.

8.3.3 Characterisation by demographics

Food insecurity tends to decrease as household size increases. Overall, households with less than nine members are more likely to be food-insecure than larger households Table 8.5 . The highest proportion of food insecure is reported amongst households with 1-5 members . This trend is similar across all residence groups, although the variation between household size categories is less pronounced in urban areas than in rural areas and among the Kuchi. The reason is probably that larger households have a higher number of working age adults who can deploy and earn a larger amount of annual income than households with fewer members which then translates into their better food consumption score and lower coping level. The age of the household head seems to be related to food insecurity status. Overall, households headed by adults under 20 years of age tend to be more food insecure than other groups, except for the Kuchi where households headed by the elderly adults 65 years or above tend to be more food insecure. The higher food insecurity among the young headed households is similarly reported among rural and urban households which could be related to their lower asset ownership, limited employment opportunities and significantly lower income. As the household s head’s age increases up to 64 years, food insecurity generally reduces. However, after that food insecurity increases again, although this surge is less remarkable in urban areas than in rural areas and among the Kuchi. On marital status of the household head, across residence groups, the widowed, divorced or separated tend to be more food insecure compared to other groups, although in urban areas food insecurity among the engaged and those who never married is reported at a slightly higher level. 43 The information is combined into the Asset Score which is a score assigned to a household that represents the number of assets they hold and the proxy weight of their importance to food security according to the common perceptions of Afghan people and WFP knowledge of local context on the asset holding. This methodology was applied in the asset analysis of the previous NRVA 2011-2012. The following weights are applied: weight ‘1’ is assigned for stove, gas balloon, sewing machine, iron, radio, tape recorder, electric fan, bicycle, blanket and mobile phone. Weight ‘2’ is assigned for refrigerator, television, and ordinary carpets gilim, satrangi, namad, fash, others. Weight ‘3’ is assigned for computer, satellite disc, motorcycle, and better quality carpets khalin, other hand-made woven carpets. Weight ‘4’ is assigned for car, tractor, and thresher. Due to the fact that gold and silver are likely to be reluctantly, and hence inaccurately reported by the respondents, these items are excluded from the analysis. Household Asset scores are then determined by multiplying the number of assets by its corresponding weight, and then summing together the totals. The total Asset score is the basis to determine and classify the level of asset holding into four categories: Poor asset score = 1 – 19.99, Borderline asset score = 20 – 29.99, Middle asset score = 30 –39.99, and Rich asset score = 40 or above. 123 Food insecurity is significantly related to the sex of the head of household. Overall, female-headed households are twice more likely to be food insecure than male-headed households 67 percent against 34 percent. This trend is consistently reported across rural and urban households. Household food security strongly relates to the highest level of education attained by the head of household. In general, food security improves as more years of education are attained by the head. Households whose heads have no formal education have the highest food insecurity rates and are more than twice as likely to be food insecure than with those with tertiary education. This trend is consistently reported across all residence groups. Table 8.5: Percentage of food-insecure households, by residence, and by selected household characteristics Household characteristic Residence National Urban Rural Kuchi 1-2 persons 45.0 30.2 49.6 0.0 3-5 persons 40.5 33.2 44.5 16.7 6-8 persons 35.4 29.7 39.1 11.6 9-10 persons 30.9 29.4 33.1 9.0 11-14 persons 27.3 29.2 28.8 4.8 15 persons or more 24.7 23.2 26.9 0.0 Less than 20 48.5 55.6 51.2 7.5 Age of head 20-44 36.2 31.9 39.4 11.4 of household 45-64 32.2 28.0 35.3 9.7 65 and more 37.4 29.6 42.1 13.6 Married 34.6 29.8 37.9 10.9 Divorced or widowed 47.6 38.7 50.4 25.0 Never married 42.2 41.4 44.6 6.8 Male 34.7 30.0 38.0 11.0 Female 67.1 58.2 71.3 0.0 No formal education 39.5 39.7 41.9 11.6 Attained education Primary 31.1 31.0 31.6 5.7 of head of household Secondary 25.3 21.6 28.3 0.0 Tertiary 20.2 17.3 23.4 0.0 Household size Marital status of head of household Sex of head of household

8.4 Seasonality and food insecurity