Food security in Syria: Preliminary results based on the 2006/07 expenditure survey

[...]In this paper we attempt to contribute to such an improved mapping by analyzing the nutritional status of a representative sample of households in Syria. According to the preliminary results of this analysis, average levels of nutrient intake are relatively high in Syria, indicating a rather high prevalence of food security, at least as far as access to dietary food energy and macronutrients is concerned. More research is needed to address a number of methodological issues (e.g. nutrient values, outliers, the difference between expenditure and consumption) and to reconcile our results with compilations from Syria’s food balance sheets, which indicate a lower mean food intake, and with other sub-national survey results.