P. Gregg Greenough, MD, MPH¹, Ziad Abdeen, PhD, MPH², Radwan Qasrawi, MS², and Bdour Dandies, MS, MPH³. (1) Center for International Emergency, Disaster & Refugee Studies, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Room E8007, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410-955-4059, ggreenou@jhsph.edu, (2) Institute for Nutrition and Health Research, Al Quds University School of Public Health, 8 Nur Ed-Din Street, Box 51000, Jerusalem, Palestine, (3) American Near East Refugee Aid, 8 Abu Obeida Street, PO Box 19982, Jerusalem, Palestine

The three-year Palestinian intifada and the destruction of the Palestinian economy have made household food access less accessible. After a study found a high prevalence of global acute and chronic malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in 2002, the international community provided massive amounts of food aid. We evaluated the targeting of this food aid with a two-stage stratified random sample of 2486 households in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, creating a matrix to 1) identify and quantify the most commonly used household coping strategies for food access and 2) cross-tabulate these indicators with targeted food assistance. Of households decreasing the amount of food consumption at least once per week (defined as food insecure), 20.6% in the West Bank and 22.9% in the Gaza Strip were not receiving food assistance. Of households needing to purchase food on credit at least once per week, 20.3% in the West Bank and 41.5% in the Gaza Strip were not receiving food assistance. Of households eating less preferred foods to higher nutrient foods, 15.2% in the West Bank and 34.5% in the Gaza Strip were not receiving food assistance. Of West Bank and Gaza Strip households with no employment or underemployment (<20 hours/week), 26.5% and 42.6% respectively were not receiving food assistance. We concluded that food assistance was not well targeted to households deemed food insecure by quantified indicators in this case. We feel this method can be useful in evaluating population-based food interventions in conflict settings.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify populations at risk by quantifying indicators of food insecurity
• Assess whether food interventions target food insecure populations during a low-level conflict using a two-stage stratified random household sample

Keywords: Food Security,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.