Secondary Towns The Nutritional Sweet Spot. A study of East Africa

Abstract

Recent literature has drawn attention to the importance of secondary towns in development. Urbanization has been extensively covered in its effect on food security, however, secondary towns and their effects on diets are largely absent. This paper analyses dietary patterns for rural areas, secondary towns and megacities using DHS maternal and child nutritional outcomes and nighttime light data, as well as detailed food consumption data. Across East Africa, we find a clear pattern that secondary towns are a nutritional sweet spot . Maternal and child nutritional outcomes are optimal in secondary towns and the best consumption of macro- and micronutrients is at the secondary town level. Rural households consume too little, although their diet composition is good. Households in megacities consume enough, yet still face high levels of micronutrient deficiencies. Time constraints and market access may be the main factors which make secondary towns an ideal nutritional hub. Acknowledgement : I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jo Swinnen and Prof. Dr. Joachim De Weerdt. Thank you to Elena Briones Alonso and Lara Cockx for your useful suggestions. A big thank you to Dr. Kathleen Beegle, Prof. Dr. Joachim De Weerdt, Dr. Jed Gibson and Dr. John Friedman for providing me the opportunity to work with this dataset. This research was funded by the KU Leuven (Methusalem Funding).