Abstract
Food insecurity and malnutrition are challenges in rural Rwanda that are presumed to be affected by differential household socioeconomic status, but the relationship between food and nutrition security and socioeconomic status is not well-understood. We used a participatory and multidisciplinary study comprising nutrition survey, focus group discussion (FGD), detailed household/farm characterization, and interviews to construct a participatory household typology and to determine differences in the socioeconomic, food, and nutrition security status of 17 households representing the identified household types in Nyabihu District of Western Province. Strategies to improve household food and nutrition security were identified by the case study households themselves. During the FGDs, it was hypothesized that financial, physical, and natural capitals varied, resulting in high, medium, and low resource endowed households, abbreviated as HRE, MRE, and LRE, respectively. The HRE households had the most educated household heads, largest landholdings (~1 ha), and highest agricultural biodiversity and total farm income per annum. This probably resulted in better diets for women, children higher household food consumption relative to the other households. In contrast, the LRE households were the least food-secure, with poor household food consumption and low dietary diversity across seasons, probably due to limited physical and economic access to food. However, anthropometry of women and children did not differ with household type. Half of the children were stunted, including some from the more food-secure HRE households. Undiversified, nutritionally inadequate diets and bouts of illness likely contributed to chronic malnutrition in children. Making agricultural programs more nutrition-sensitive, creating diverse employment opportunities, and sensitizing communities to nutrition and adequate feeding practices of children could complement the interventions identified by households to improve their food and nutrition security.
Highlights
Rwanda is one of the few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that has registered sustained economic growth and improved food availability; about 20% of its households are food insecure, and 38% of children aged 5 years and below are stunted (CFSVA, 2015)
Since the main differences between the household types were based on resource endowment, the household types will hereafter be referred to as High Resource Endowed (HRE) for the rich, Medium Resource Endowed (MRE) for the moderately poor, and Low Resource Endowed (LRE) for the poor
The type of household head was identified in 50% of focus group discussion (FGD), with LRE household heads reported to be female, widowed, young males, or the elderly, this was ranked as the least important factor
Summary
Rwanda is one of the few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that has registered sustained economic growth and improved food availability; about 20% of its households are food insecure, and 38% of children aged 5 years and below are stunted (CFSVA, 2015). The majority of food-insecure households in Rwanda are found in rural areas where the amount of food produced is often related to land, livestock, and agricultural asset ownership (Nzayisenga, 2015). Household income is another determinant of food security, as the majority of households in Rwanda are highly dependent on markets for food purchases (CAADP, 2013). Differences in food production, income, and market distance can result in differential access to sufficient food by households
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