Understanding the Context for Agriculture for Nutrition Research: Identifying Country Typologies of Child-Stunting Determinants

Abstract

We use data from 52 countries on child stunting, poverty, determinants of food security, environmental health, and quality of maternal and child care to carry out a cluster analysis of country typologies. The purpose is to identify where agriculture-led interventions might address binding constraints to progress in improving nutrition outcomes and to identify how existing research on the links between agriculture and nutrition in particular country contexts may or may not be representative. We find that countries with average to poor nutrition outcomes within this sample set fall into groups where one supporting area tends to lag, such as environmental health or food security. Although integrated programs to address all aspects that support nutrition are needed in most of these 52 countries, we identify a group of 11 countries where interventions to improve diet diversity may be most relevant toward progress in alleviating child malnutrition. Agriculture for Nutrition and Health intervention research is underway in 6 of these 11 countries.