CARI Food Security Classification Methodology Training Course

Course overview

Humanitarian and development teams often collect Food Consumption Score, reduced Coping Strategies Index, livelihood coping and expenditure data but struggle to turn separate indicators into a defensible household food-security classification. This creates inconsistent reporting across assessments, weak targeting rationale and difficulty explaining why one population group is classified as moderately food insecure while another is marginally food secure. The CARI methodology provides a structured way to consolidate these indicators into a transparent food-security outcome that can support programme design, needs analysis and management decisions.

This five-day course teaches participants how to apply WFP’s Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI) from questionnaire design through household classification and reporting. Participants work with Food Consumption Score (FCS), reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI), livelihood-based coping strategies, economic vulnerability indicators and the CARI consolidation matrix. They learn to prepare indicator variables, apply thresholds, resolve conflicting results, create household-level CARI classifications, disaggregate findings and communicate limitations without overstating precision.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with guided calculations, Excel-based classification exercises and a multi-sector humanitarian assessment case. Participants build a reproducible CARI classification workbook, including indicator recoding rules, a consolidation matrix, quality checks, disaggregation tables and a short findings brief. This gives participants a usable template for reviewing survey datasets, documenting analytical decisions and presenting results to programme, coordination and donor stakeholders.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the WFP CARI consolidation matrix to classify households into food-security outcome groups
• Calculate and interpret Food Consumption Score categories from household food-frequency data
• Calculate reduced Coping Strategies Index scores and assign context-appropriate severity bands
• Classify livelihood-based coping strategies by stress, crisis and emergency severity
• Construct economic vulnerability categories using expenditure, income and asset-related variables
• Recode survey data and document indicator thresholds in an auditable Excel classification workbook
• Validate household-level CARI results through missing-data checks, cross-tabulations and outlier review
• Produce a disaggregated CARI findings brief with targeting implications, limitations and recommended follow-up analysis

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Food Security Analysts — who must convert household survey indicators into defensible food-security classifications
• Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Officers — who manage survey data and need consistent outcome reporting
• Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Staff — who support evidence-based targeting and needs assessments
• Emergency Programme Managers — who need to interpret CARI results when prioritising response options and locations
• Nutrition and Cash Transfer Officers — who use food-security evidence to align programme eligibility and referral decisions
• Humanitarian Assessment Consultants — who prepare rapid or seasonal assessment reports for agencies, clusters and donors

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should already understand the purpose of household food-security assessments and be comfortable reading survey questionnaires and basic frequency tables. Familiarity with concepts such as food consumption, coping strategies, household expenditure and vulnerability is assumed. Participants should be able to use Microsoft Excel for sorting data, applying formulas and creating simple pivot tables; they should bring a laptop with Excel or equivalent spreadsheet software. Prior experience with CARI, R, SPSS, Stata, KoboToolbox configuration or complex sampling analysis is not required. The course explains the indicator logic before participants apply the classification method.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led explanations followed by structured analysis of a simulated household assessment dataset. Participants calculate FCS and rCSI, code livelihood coping and economic vulnerability variables, then apply the CARI matrix in Excel. Facilitated case discussions examine threshold choices, missing values, contradictory indicators and responsible interpretation for targeting. Small groups compare classification decisions and defend them using documented evidence. On the final day, each participant completes an application plan for adapting the workbook, data checks and reporting outputs to their organisation’s assessment workflow.

Course outline

Day 1: CARI purpose, framework and assessment inputs

• WFP CARI methodology purpose and relationship to household food-security analysis
• CARI outcome groups and the logic of the consolidation matrix
• Current food-security status versus coping-capacity dimensions
• Household survey modules required for CARI-compatible analysis
• Food Consumption Score data structure and seven-day food-group recall
• Reduced Coping Strategies Index question design and frequency recall
• Data dictionaries, household identifiers and analysis-ready dataset checks

Workshop: Participants inspect a sample household questionnaire and dataset, mapping each survey question to the CARI indicator and output it supports.

Day 2: Measuring current food-security status

• Food Consumption Score calculation using food-group weights
• Standard and context-adapted FCS threshold considerations
• Food Consumption Score category assignment and plausibility checks
• Reduced Coping Strategies Index calculation and weighted coping behaviours
• rCSI severity bands and contextual interpretation
• Combining FCS and rCSI as current-status evidence
• Missing values, zero consumption and inconsistent recall-period handling

Workshop: Participants calculate FCS and rCSI for sample households in Excel and produce a current-status classification table with documented formulas.

Day 3: Assessing coping capacity and economic vulnerability

• Livelihood-based coping strategy module and reference period
• Stress, crisis and emergency livelihood coping categories
• Severity coding when households report multiple livelihood coping actions
• Economic vulnerability concepts for CARI analysis
• Food expenditure share and basic-needs expenditure indicators
• Asset ownership, debt and income-source variables as contextual evidence
• Constructing coping-capacity categories from livelihood and economic indicators

Workshop: Participants code livelihood coping and economic vulnerability variables for a case dataset and justify their coping-capacity classifications.

Day 4: CARI consolidation, validation and disaggregation

• Applying the CARI consolidation matrix at household level
• Food secure, marginally food secure, moderately food insecure and severely food insecure outcomes
• Resolving discordant indicator results using documented decision rules
• Excel lookup formulas and conditional logic for reproducible classification
• Completeness checks, duplicate records and impossible-value detection
• Disaggregating CARI outcomes by sex, location, displacement status and livelihood group
• Weighted percentages, confidence considerations and responsible presentation of results

Workshop: Participants build a complete CARI classification table, run quality checks and prepare disaggregated results for a fictional emergency response area.

Day 5: Reporting findings and applying CARI in operations

• Interpreting CARI prevalence alongside population profiles and contextual information
• Distinguishing classification results from causal analysis
• Writing defensible food-security findings for assessment reports
• Visualising CARI outcomes with tables, stacked bars and geographic summaries
• Using CARI results to inform targeting discussions and response analysis
• Methodological limitations, comparability risks and threshold documentation
• Assessment analysis plans, review workflows and version-controlled calculation files

Workshop: Participants produce a two-page CARI findings brief and implementation plan describing how they will apply the methodology to an upcoming or recent assessment.

Tools & standards covered

WFP Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security (CARI), WFP Food Consumption Score (FCS) standard, WFP reduced Coping Strategies Index (rCSI), Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions