Metrics commonly used to assess household resilience fail to capture individual-level dietary vulnerabilities, particularly among women and young children. Considering individual dietary adequacy is essential, as it reflects a household's ability to maintain nutritional wellbeing during periods of stress. This study pilots the integration of two indicators of individual-level dietary diversity, Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) and for Children (MDD-C), into a resilience capacity framework, using unique household survey data collected in 2024 from eight provinces in Afghanistan.

The analysis tests both the feasibility of collecting individual dietary data in fragile contexts and the added value of these indicators in resilience assessment. Findings reveal notable variation in adult female participation across provinces, with overall engagement remaining low (32 percent). Female enumerators were more likely to obtain consent, increasing participation by 13–15 percentage points.

FAO beneficiaries show greater openness to participation, particularly when interviewed by male enumerators, suggesting that prior program engagement fosters trust and facilitates data collection. For women, dietary diversity is associated with household wealth, education, and income diversification; for children, mainly with access to basic services, such as health care, clean water, and markets. In the original resilience framework, which relies on household-level indicators of food access, more than one in five women in the most resilient households still fail to achieve acceptable MDD-W. The enhanced model demonstrates that incorporating indicators of individual dietary diversity leads to a more nuanced understanding of resilience capacity, offering practical lessons for data collection in culturally sensitive, restrictive and fragile settings.