The 55th UNSC in March 2024 endorsed the guidelines“Processing food consumption data from HCES” (unstats.un.org). Statistics Norway has, through the food security project, had a central role in preparing the guidelines.
The guidelines explain how to process food consumption data collected in household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES). It provides recommendations for the complete processing of these data, so that it is ready for different uses, including welfare and poverty, food security and nutrition, consumer price indices, and national accounts. The goal is that these guidelines will lead to only one round of data processing for all users of HCES food data, as it is inefficient and costly when different users process the data independently of each other.
The guidelines were prepared under the aegis of UN-CEAG Task Team of food security and food consumption measurement. The team included experts on food security and consumption statistics from Statistics Norway, the World Bank, FAO and the Pacific Community, and through several rounds of consultation, involved a large group of experts from national statistical offices, international organizations, and academia. In the final consultation (October 2023) the guidelines were circulated to national statistical offices in 206 countries and territories from low to high income countries.
