1,721,279 research outputs found
Rodriuez-Arguelles MC, Belicchi errari M, Bisceglie F, Pelizzi C, Pelosi G, Pinelli S, Sassi M
No full textEvidence of Between- and Within-Household Child Nutrition Inequality in Malawi: Does the Gender of the Household Head Matter?
No full textThis paper uses a variance decomposition approach to investigate inter- and intra-household inequalities in under-five children’s nutritional status in Malawi and distinguish between explained and unexplained variance. The adopted linear random effect model is based on a version of the conceptual framework by UNICEF, and the adopted dataset is from the Malawian Endline Survey 2014. The selected impact variable is child stunting. The explanatory variables are representative of the underlying and basic causes of this nutritional status. This study adds to the literature by providing an estimate by the gender of the household head and up-to-date evidence on the case of Malawi, where the prevalence of child malnutrition is rampant. The results reveal that between-household inequalities, especially those unexplained by the adopted model, mostly drive the long-term child nutritional inequalities. Policy suggestions for the design of nutritional and redistributive policies aimed at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the country’s growth and development strategy are provided
Economic Connectiveness and Pro-Poor Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Agriculture
No full textIn Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth is essential for poverty reduction, and pro-poor growth is the renewed focus of today’s political debate. The present paper adds to the literature on the growth–inequality relationship. It provides an in-depth analysis of the potential role of agriculture in promoting pro-poor growth in rural and urban areas compared with that of other activities. This aspect still lacks rigorous empirical support. Using the Nexus project SAMs by the International Food Policy Research Institute, this study identifies the level of ‘keyness’ of 36 activities (12 are agricultural) in nine Eastern, Western, and Central African countries using the inter-industry linkages analysis. Afterwards, it investigates the income distribution multipliers effects of activities growth across households classified in quantiles in rural and urban areas. Therefore, the paper adds to the literature, mainly focused on rural poverty and information on the growth effect on urban poverty, which is important in the context of rapid urbanization and the growing number of poor people in African cities. Apart from country-specific factors, the results confirm the strong integration of agriculture with the economy. The growth of key agricultural activities presents the most pronounced multiplicative effect on the income of rural households in the lowest quantiles. Poor urban households also benefit from their growth, but not to the same extent as rural households with an increase in the rural–urban income gap
Coping Strategies of Food Insecure Households in Conflict Areas: The Case of South Sudan
No full textThe surge in acute food insecurity due to conflict calls for sound evidence-based policymaking. Unfortunately, the knowledge on behaviours of households when they face a food shortage in these situations is under-reported in the literature. Our paper contributes to the covering of this gap by presenting the food consumption and livelihood-based coping mechanisms used by households in Western Bahr el Ghazal in South Sudan, distinguishing between rural areas and the Wau Protection of Civilian camp. We used a descriptive research design and unique primary data collected by the submission of a survey to a sample of 838 households from July–August 2020. In the alarming hunger situation in the investigated areas, households deeply use coping mechanisms independently of their food security status. The majority of them are at the breakdown of their coping ability. The behaviours used by households indicate a wider social catastrophe that the long-term consequences of these mechanisms can further accentuate. Food assistance resulted in a relatively better situation in the Wau Protection of Civilian camp. The paper confirms the centrality of a humanitarian-development-peace approach to food security in the investigated area, where the support of livelihood strategies and opportunities for households and the promotion of sound institutions have paramount roles
Household Splitting Process and Food Security in Malawi
No full textDespite the frequent changes in household composition in Sub-Saharan Africa, the literature on the household division process is sparse, with no evidence of its effect on food security. This paper addresses the topic in Malawi, where the fission process is evident and malnutrition is a severe problem. Using the Integrated Household Panel Dataset, this study applies the difference-in-difference model with the propensity score matching technique to compare matched groups of households that did and did not split between 2010 and 2013. The results suggest that coping strategies adopted by poor households and life course events determine household fission in Malawi, a process that benefits household food security in the short term. On average, the food consumption score is 3.74 units higher among households that split between 2010 and 2013 compared to the matched households that did not. However, the household division might have long-run adverse effects on food insecurity, especially for poor households due to the adoption of coping strategies that might compromise their human capital and income-generating activities. Therefore, this process warrants attention for the more accurate understanding, design, and evaluation of food security interventions
A sem approach to the direct and indirect links between wash services and access to food in countries in protracted crises: The case of Western Bahr-El-Ghazal State, South Sudan
No full textAs highlighted by the 2030 Agenda, access to food is a crucially important aspect of sustainable development. In this context, the association between WaSH services and access to food still needs to be clearly understood. This study investigates the direct and indirect impact of the WaSH environment of households on access to food, and the role of mediation variables and insecurity due to war and conflicts in South Sudan. We considered a statistically representative sample of 1382 households and used two structural equation models based on primary data. A basic model estimates association between household WaSH environment and food security directly and indirectly through the household livelihood-based coping capacity and poverty perception. Its extended version includes the indirect effect of insecurity due to war and conflicts. Results are theoretically coherent and demonstrate the relevance of the household WaSH environment for food security. The indirect effect of the absence of insecurity due to conflicts and war on food security adds to the basic model a statistically significant total indirect effect. From a policy perspective, the study suggests reinforcement of the capacity of the public sector for delivering WaSH services and the need for multi-sectoral solutions linking humanitarian, development, and peace approaches
Seasonality and nutrition-sensitive agriculture in Kenya: Evidence from mixed-methods research in rural Lake Naivasha Basin
No full textThis study investigates the impact of seasonality within the debate on nutrition-sensitive agriculture focusing on rural Lake Naivasha Basin in Kenya, which presents an interesting case study of the food system in East Africa. Seasonality shapes food and nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa, dominated by a rain-fed system; however, lack of monthly data hampers understanding. Using mixed methods, this study constructs a monthly dataset of a representative sample of households from February 2018 to January 2019. A fixed-effects analysis highlights the association between three pathways from agriculture to nutrition while controlling for the hunger and harvesting seasons by crop. Supported by qualitative information from focus groups, the results suggest that seasonality is an important dimension of the agriculture-nutrition link and promote understanding of the complexity of the pathways suggested by the literature, including the association between crops and dietary diversity, with relevant policy implications
Determinants of Household Nutrition Security in Countries in Protracted Crisis: Evidence from South Sudan
No full textUndernutrition is a considerable challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, especially in countries affected by a protracted crisis, but the literature lacks information on the underlying mechanisms influencing micro- and macronutrients, and appropriate analytical tools are needed to assist policymakers and implementers. The paper contributes to filling this gap, focusing on the Western Bahr el Ghazal state in South Sudan and using primary data collected in May–June 2019 for a statistically representative sample of households. The literature typically uses one micro- or macronutrient as a proxy of nutritional status. On the contrary, the study applied a MANCOVA with an artificial dependent variable, including protein, vitamin A, and heme iron, in a single experiment to discover the variables that better explain household nutritional status. Dietary diversity explains the largest proportion of variance in household nutritional status. The importance of the variables in explaining the variance in the specific micro- and macronutrients depends on the explanatory variable. Therefore, the results suggest the possible misinterpretation of undernutrition using one nutrient. Moreover, they highlight the importance of a multisectoral approach to the problem with a central role played by agriculture and the urgency of the reinforcement of the humanitarian–development–peace nexus to improve household nutrition security in South Sudan
Determinants of the severity of household food insecurity among the slums of Dhaka city, Bangladesh
No full textAccording to the National Food Policy of Bangladesh, the urban slum dwellers are the most vulnerable group to ensure food security. Their condition has not been materially improved over three decades. In our study, we present the current food insecurity scenario in the slums of Dhaka city using the most recent ‘Bangladesh–Urban Informal Settlements Baseline Survey’ dataset of the World Bank. Afterwards, we analyse the determinants of the household food calorie gap by applying the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine transformed Double Hurdle model. The determinants are organised to represent the three pillars of food security (food availability, access, and utilisation) and all three pillars have emerged as significant factors in determining the food calorie gap. From our empirical results, we highlight some vital gaps in the National Food Policy and recommend broad areas of interventions for the betterment of the food security status among the slum dwellers of Dhaka
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