Dietary Diversity and Food Coping Strategies in Zimbabwe: Do Resilience and Food Insecurity Status Matter?

This study assessed how dietary diversity and food coping strategies differ by resilience and food insecurity status. Proportionate sampling technique was used to interview 3440 households in 18 districts of Zimbabwe. Results show that resilient and food secure households had good diet diversification and were less likely to adopt food coping strategies when compared to less resilient and food insecure ones. Adaptive and absorptive resilience capacities and income reduced the use of food coping strategies. Interventions that improve household resilience capacities and income should be promoted to reduce the use of food coping strategies.