Abstract
This paper examines how the profile of undernutrition among children in two African countries (Ethiopia and Nigeria) changed over the period of the 2007/08 food, fuel and financial crisis. Using the Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF), an indicator which allows for a comprehensive assessment of undernutrition in young children, we examine what changes occurred in the composition of undernutrition, and how these changes were distributed amongst children in different socio-economic groups. This is important as certain combinations of anthropometric failure (AF), especially the experience of multiple failures (dual and triple combinations of AF) are associated with higher morbidity and mortality risks, and are also related to poverty. Our hypothesis is that increases in food prices during the crisis contributed to an increase in inequality, which may have resulted in concurrent increases in the prevalence of more damaging forms of undernutrition amongst poorer children. While both countries witnessed large increases in food prices, the effects were quite different. Ethiopia managed reduce the prevalence of multiple anthropometric failure between 2005 and 2011 across most groups and regions. By contrast, in Nigeria prevalence increased between 2008 and 2013, and particularly so in the poorer, northern states. The countries studied applied quite different policies in response to food price increases, with the results from Ethiopia demonstrating that protectionist public health and nutrition interventions can mitigate the impacts of price increases on poor children.
Highlights
In 2013, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) projections estimated that over 840 million people, around 12% of people on the planet, were unable to meet their daily dietary needs, and were likely to have suffered from chronic hunger (FAO, IFAD, and WFP, 2013)
Data on food prices in Nigeria and Ethiopia are taken from the Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Food Price Index (FAO, IFAD, and WFP, 2013)
This paper tracked the prevalence of multiple anthropometric failures (MAF) in young children in two low income countries in the context of increases in food prices
Summary
In 2013, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) projections estimated that over 840 million people, around 12% of people on the planet, were unable to meet their daily dietary needs, and were likely to have suffered from chronic hunger (FAO, IFAD, and WFP, 2013). In many low-income countries, poor families have coped by consuming cheaper food (with poorer nutritional value), eating less, and restricting the food intake of adults so children can eat more (Brinkman et al, 2010) Such household adaption strategies have been observed in rich countries undergoing public spending cuts and austerity measures, as shown by the increased use of food banks (Selke, 2009; Butler, 2012), suicides as a result of poverty, deaths from starvation (Gentleman, 2014), and parents skimping on meals (PSE-UK, 2014). Conventional indicators can mask important changes in the patterning of undernutrition, as the burden of multiple failures (and the attending raised morbidity and mortality risks) may fall disproportionately on certain groups of children This is especially important in the context of food price increases, which could result in rich and poor households using different coping strategies, e.g. eating less or eating differently. Gender differences: are girls more likely to be affected than boys and do differences between the sexes widen with increasing food prices?
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