The indicators corresponding to caring for infants (essentially those relating to feeding practices, a critical issue at this age), those relating to women in general, and finally to other members of the family or group, are considered separately.
A certain number of health indicators (access to care, etc.) would also fall under this heading, but are not included here since they are considered in the section on health and demography (Tables 13 to 17). They may be systematically broken down by sex in order to show more specifically the attention paid to the nutrition of girls and women.
A point to bear in mind is that validation of a number of new indicators in this field is a matter of debate on account of their qualitative nature, and the fact that they are based on observation or interview. Their level of standardization depends greatly on the cultural context in which they are applied. This field is evolving constantly; we have limited ourselves to indicators for which there is a minimum consensus and whose use can be generalized.
TABLE 10
Care for infants and young
children
INDICATORS |
|
USED BY |
Breastfeeding and complementary feeding[15] |
||
|
|
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Breastfeeding and complementary feeding |
||
|
|
|
Other caring practices |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG1 |
TABLE 11
Care for women
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
Health/nutritional status |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
|
|
|
|
|
MDG5 |
|
|
Health/nutritional status |
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
|
|
Education[17] |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
MDG3 |
|
FIVIMS |
|
MDG3 |
|
|
|
|
Socio-economic role |
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG3 |
|
MDG3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TABLE 12
Care for other household
members
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
These are standard indicators which have been regularly recommended since the 1980s by WHO and were recently revised (WHO, 1996a; WHO, 2002).
TABLE 13
Mortality
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
MDG4 |
|
MDG4 |
|
|
|
|
|
MDG5 |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
- Malaria |
MDG6 |
- Diabetes mellitus |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
TABLE 14
Morbidity
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
- Acute respiratory infections (ARI) |
FIVIMS |
|
|
- % of children immunized against each disease, among target age group |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
- Diabetes mellitus |
|
- Number and % of persons with hypertension (systolic blood pressure ³140 mm Hg and/or diastolic pressure ³90 mmHg) or average systolic pressure |
|
TABLE 15
Fertility
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
TABLE 16
Water and sanitation
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
Water |
|
|
MDG7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sanitation |
|
|
MDG7 |
|
|
|
|
Household characteristics |
|
|
|
|
|
TABLE 17
Availability and access to health
services
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
Availability |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Availability |
|
|
|
|
|
Access |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
MDG5 |
|
MDG4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG6 |
|
MDG6 |
|
MDG8 |
Although these are of only general value, they can be used to measure progress in a countrys general socio-economic situation and standard of living. They correspond to the basic causes of malnutrition in the conceptual framework shown previously (see Figure) as an example. These indicators should be analyzed together with indicators of the nutritional situation, in order to have a complete picture of the reasons for change (or lack of change) observed.
Most of these basic indicators are widely available centrally, even if their updating is sometimes slow (a census, for example, takes place every 10 years, but adjustments can be made at regular intervals). It is important to clearly identify their reference period.
TABLE 18
Demography
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
TABLE 19
Economy
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
MDG8 |
|
MDG8 |
|
|
|
|
|
MDG8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
|
TABLE 20
Employment and services
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG8 |
|
|
|
|
Number of (retail and wholesale) businesses per capita or per 1000 homes |
|
Number of telephone lines per 1000 inhabitants |
MDG8 |
Number of personal computers per 1000 inhabitants |
MDG8 |
TABLE 21
Education
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
Adults |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
MDG2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Children |
|
|
|
|
MDG2 |
|
MDG2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MDG2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TABLE 22
Investment in public
health
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
These are given as examples. There are of course many others which would obviously need to be adapted to the specific context of the country or region under consideration.
TABLE 23
Agro-ecology and sustainable
environment
INDICATORS |
USED BY |
Physical environment |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
MDG7 |
|
|
Environmental management |
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
FIVIMS |
|
|
|
MDG7 |
|
FIVIMS |
|
FIVIMS |
|
MDG7 |
|
MDG7 |
|
|
[14]
For a more exhaustive presentation of indicators of this type and
their use, see: UNICEF, 1997. [15] See the references: WHO, 1991, and WHO & UNICEF, 1993. An extensive study has recently been carried out by a research group (see IFPRI, 2003) regarding potential indicators of complementary feeding of infants; some of them are presented in this chapter. [16] See http://www.unicef.org/programme/breastfeeding/baby.htm [17] See the UNESCO (www.unesco.org) and OECD (www.oecd.org/statsportal/) websites. [18] Average number of live births a woman would have had at age 50 years if she had been subjected to the current level of fertility throughout her fertile life. |