Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis 2021

The Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (CFSVA) is conducted every three years in Rwanda to provide monitoring information for food security and nutrition situation of households and to monitor changes over the years. This current CFSVA, conducted by MINAGRI, NISR, WFP, and other partners, particularly aimed to provide current information on food insecurity and malnutrition to monitor the progress of implementation of various policies and strategies, including priority areas number 2 and 3 of the PSTA4, which focus on ensuring food and nutrition security at the household level. This CFSVA was undertaken just over a year after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Rwanda. Although the economic consequences of the actions taken to curb the spread of the pandemic were unavoidable, COVID-19 has adversely affected income opportunities, reversing some of the economic gains achieved by some households as indicated by the deterioration of some key food security indicators. Bearing in mind that this is not a comprehensive COVID-19 impact study, the report should be read with the understanding that some of the observed trends highlighting the fragility of livelihoods and food security could have been influenced by the pandemic.
The state of food insecurity in 2021:
Food insecurity is reported through the Consolidated Approach to Reporting Indicators of food fecurity (CARI). This methodology classifies households into four descriptive groups: food secure, marginally food secure, moderately food insecure, and severely food insecure. CARI combines a suite of food security indicators, including food consumption score (FCS), food expenditure share, and livelihood coping strategies, into a summary composite indicator.
Results from the 2021 CFSVA have indicated that 20.6 percent of the population in Rwanda is food insecure, of which 18.8 percent are moderately food insecure and 1.8 percent are severely food insecure. National stunting rates have significantly decreased from 34.9 percent in 2018 to 32.4 percent in 2021. Out of this 24.0 percent of children under 5 years of age are moderately stunted and 8.4 percent are severely stunted. Acute malnutrition (or wasting) in children under 5 is 2.4 percent, with 1.8 percent experiencing moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) and 0.6 percent experiencing severe acute malnutrition (SAM). The prevalence of acute malnutrition has slightly increased by 0.4 percent compared to 2.0 percent in 2018.
In Rwanda, food insecurity and malnutrition are mainly caused by limited consumption of nutritionally diverse foods. Only 19.5 percent of children aged between 6 to 23 months receive a minimum acceptable diet (an increase of 2.5 percent compared to 2018), 32.8 percent reach the minimum meal frequency and 42.3 percent obtain the minimum dietary diversity of four food groups consumed. For women aged 15- 49 years old, 32 percent meet the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) indicating that they have consumed at least 5 out of the 10 specified food groups in the last 24 hours, before the survey.
In comparison with 2018, the food security situation in Rwanda deteriorated by 2 percent. Food security continues to deteriorate exceedingly in Karongi (-14.7 percent), Ngororero (-13.8 percent), Burera (-13.4 percent), Nyamasheke (-12 percent) and Gatsibo district (-15.8 percent). Positively, food security has improved in 12 districts throughout the country. Significant changes were observed for Kayonza district, which has improved the prevalence of food secure households by 20 percent (from 67.3 percent in 2018 to 87.3 percent in 2021). High improvements are also observed in Kirehe (+12.6 percent), Gicumbi (+10.6 percent) and Kamonyi (+10.4 percent).
Geographical location of the most food insecure:
The Western Province of Rwanda has the highest prevalence of food insecure households (35.3 percent), followed by the Southern Province (22.2 percent), Northern Province (18.6 percent) and Eastern Province (14.6 percent). The lowest prevalence of food insecurity is found in the City of Kigali with 5.0 percent of moderately food insecure households. Stunting reduced in 4 provinces to below 40 percent, WHO's threshold for very high levels of stunting. In City of Kigali, however, the prevalence of stunting has slightly increased but remains the lowest in the country (15.4 percent).