April 2010 — Food insecurity as a dimension of poverty is one metric used to measure program impact. This brief describes a study conducted by FINCA International that explored the linkages between food security, livelihoods and access to finance in Guatemala and Zambia. The researchers surveyed random samples of 300 clients in each country, conducted focus groups and studied the literature. Their findings indicate that access to financial services is correlated with improved dietary diversity and suggest ways to enhance households’ food security. 

This brief is part of the FIELD-Support Knowledge Series, produced by the Financial Integration, Economic Leveraging, Broad-Based Dissemination and Support (FIELD-Support) Leader with Associates (LWA) cooperative agreement, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. More information on the series can be found here: http://kdid.org/projects/field-support