Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa

Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has analyz...

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Autores principales: Headey, Derek D., Stifel, David, You, Liangzhi, Guo, Zhe
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148211
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author Headey, Derek D.
Stifel, David
You, Liangzhi
Guo, Zhe
author_browse Guo, Zhe
Headey, Derek D.
Stifel, David
You, Liangzhi
author_facet Headey, Derek D.
Stifel, David
You, Liangzhi
Guo, Zhe
author_sort Headey, Derek D.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has analyzed how different dimensions of accessibility, such as urbanization and travel times to urban centers, affect child nutrition and dietary outcomes. In this paper we study these relationships in sub-Saharan Africa, a highly rural continent still severely hindered by remoteness problems. We link spatial data on travel times to 20,000 person cities to survey data from 10,900 communities in 23 countries. We document strong negative associations between nutrition indicators and rural livelihoods, but only moderately strong associations with remoteness to cities. Moreover, the harmful effects of remoteness and rural living largely disappear once education, wealth, and social/infrastructural services indicators are added to the model. This implies that the key nutritional disadvantage of rural populations stems chiefly from social and economic poverty. Combating these problems requires either an acceleration of urbanization processes, or finding innovative cost-effective mechanisms for extending basic services to isolated rural communities.
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spelling CGSpace1482112025-11-06T05:45:03Z Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa Headey, Derek D. Stifel, David You, Liangzhi Guo, Zhe rural population child nutrition nutritional disorders undernutrition roads urbanization stunting malnutrition nutrition transport infrastructure diet poverty rural areas dietary diversity Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has analyzed how different dimensions of accessibility, such as urbanization and travel times to urban centers, affect child nutrition and dietary outcomes. In this paper we study these relationships in sub-Saharan Africa, a highly rural continent still severely hindered by remoteness problems. We link spatial data on travel times to 20,000 person cities to survey data from 10,900 communities in 23 countries. We document strong negative associations between nutrition indicators and rural livelihoods, but only moderately strong associations with remoteness to cities. Moreover, the harmful effects of remoteness and rural living largely disappear once education, wealth, and social/infrastructural services indicators are added to the model. This implies that the key nutritional disadvantage of rural populations stems chiefly from social and economic poverty. Combating these problems requires either an acceleration of urbanization processes, or finding innovative cost-effective mechanisms for extending basic services to isolated rural communities. 2017 2024-06-21T09:24:04Z 2024-06-21T09:24:04Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148211 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148071 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148533 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147752 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146367 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148066 application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Headey, Derek D.; Stifel, David; You, Liangzhi; and Guo, Zhe. 2017. Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1694. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148211
spellingShingle rural population
child nutrition
nutritional disorders
undernutrition
roads
urbanization
stunting
malnutrition
nutrition
transport infrastructure
diet
poverty
rural areas
dietary diversity
Headey, Derek D.
Stifel, David
You, Liangzhi
Guo, Zhe
Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title_full Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title_fullStr Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title_full_unstemmed Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title_short Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa
title_sort remoteness urbanization and child nutrition in sub saharan africa
topic rural population
child nutrition
nutritional disorders
undernutrition
roads
urbanization
stunting
malnutrition
nutrition
transport infrastructure
diet
poverty
rural areas
dietary diversity
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148211
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