A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COPING STRATEGIES USED BYFOOD SECURE AND FOOD INSECURE HOUSEHOLDS

Food security has become a priority in many developing countries and isconsidered a fundamental human right. Food security can be defined as “when allpeople, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safeand nutritious food which meet their dietary needs and food preferences for anactive and healthy life”.The recent focus on food insecurity shifted to access,vulnerability and sustainabilityoffood in an urban context. Inthis context,the useofcopingstrategies to overcome food insecurity can be seen as a measure of foodinsecurity and the associated vulnerability towards food insecurity. The questionthat arisesis: To what extent doesthe coping strategies used by foodsecurehouseholds differ from the coping strategies used by food insecure households? Aquantitative research method was employed whereby a stratified random sampleof 600 households was taken from two low-income areas in South Africa. TheHousehold FoodInsecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was used to determine the foodsecurity status of households and the Coping Strategies Index (CSI) was used todetermine the coping strategies used by the food secure and food insecurehouseholds. Different statistical techniques were used to compare the food secureand food insecure households with regard to coping strategies used. The studyfound that the use of coping strategies increasesas households move from foodsecure to severely food insecure. The study indicated that there should be policiesthat deal with the vulnerabilityof certain groups