Gender and household food security in Indonesia: Evidence for the period of 1993-2018

Household food security threatens various ages ranging from children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. It correlates to a variety of health problems such as malnutrition, stunting, overweight, obesity, and mental health. Indonesia is the only country in the world with a high prevalence of three types of malnutrition wasting, stunting, and overweight. Female headed-household known as vulnerable groups, but also the key to food security. This study aims to analyze the food security of male and female-headed households in Indonesia during 1993-2018. In this study, household food security not only measured by energy adequacy but also on food share expenditure. The status of household food security is classified into four categories: food secure, vulnerable, questionable, and food insecure. This study uses a nationally representative survey in Indonesia, also known as Survei Sosial Ekonomi Nasional (SUSENAS) and Village Census (Potensi Desa) for infrastructure and natural disasters data. The analytical method uses multinomial logistic regression analysis for pooled crossectional data to explain several socio-economic conditions. This study finds that female headed-household found to be more food secure than male at counterpart. Many socio-demographic and socio-economic variables have a significant association with food security status, such as age, education, expenditure, marital status, employment status, household size, and tobacco use. The contextual variables for better road infrastructure relate to food security. Frequency of natural disasters in village level are significant and have a negative effect on food insecurity status. This study also indicates that economic shock has a negative impact on household food security.