The search for appropriate tools to assess food and nutrition insecurity is a
major preoccupation for development practitioners. This paper explores the
potential of complementing a mainstream measure of food security, the
Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) with a political ecology approach,
using a case study from Gaborone, Botswana. HDDS exposes differential food
access, illustrated by varying household dietary diversity scores and commonly
accessed food groups, while a political ecology approach helps explains how and
why households lack access to certain food groups. HDDS enriched with political
ecology analysis will provide more useful conclusions to practitioners and policy
makers.