Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011

South Asia has long been synonymous with unusually high rates of undernutrition. In the past decade, however, Nepal has arguably achieved the fastest recorded decline in child stunting in the world and has done so in the midst of civil war and post-conflict political instability. Given recent intere...

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Main Authors: Headey, Derek D., Hoddinott, John F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Public Library of Science 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150520
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author Headey, Derek D.
Hoddinott, John F.
author_browse Headey, Derek D.
Hoddinott, John F.
author_facet Headey, Derek D.
Hoddinott, John F.
author_sort Headey, Derek D.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description South Asia has long been synonymous with unusually high rates of undernutrition. In the past decade, however, Nepal has arguably achieved the fastest recorded decline in child stunting in the world and has done so in the midst of civil war and post-conflict political instability. Given recent interest in reducing undernutrition-particularly the role of nutrition-sensitive policies-this paper aims to quantitatively understand this surprising success story by analyzing the 2001, 2006, and 2011 rounds of Nepal's Demographic Health Surveys. To do so, we construct models of the intermediate determinants of child and maternal nutritional change and then decompose predicted changes in nutrition outcomes over time. We identify four broad drivers of change: asset accumulation, health and nutrition interventions, maternal educational gains, and improvements in sanitation. Many of these changes were clearly influenced by policy decisions, including increased public investments in health and education and community-led health and sanitation campaigns. Other factors, such as rapid growth in migration-based remittances, are more a reflection of household responses to changing political and economic circumstances.
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spelling CGSpace1505202025-02-24T06:46:28Z Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011 Headey, Derek D. Hoddinott, John F. maternal and child health imunization nutrition policies stunting malnutrition nutrition political institutions children vaccination South Asia has long been synonymous with unusually high rates of undernutrition. In the past decade, however, Nepal has arguably achieved the fastest recorded decline in child stunting in the world and has done so in the midst of civil war and post-conflict political instability. Given recent interest in reducing undernutrition-particularly the role of nutrition-sensitive policies-this paper aims to quantitatively understand this surprising success story by analyzing the 2001, 2006, and 2011 rounds of Nepal's Demographic Health Surveys. To do so, we construct models of the intermediate determinants of child and maternal nutritional change and then decompose predicted changes in nutrition outcomes over time. We identify four broad drivers of change: asset accumulation, health and nutrition interventions, maternal educational gains, and improvements in sanitation. Many of these changes were clearly influenced by policy decisions, including increased public investments in health and education and community-led health and sanitation campaigns. Other factors, such as rapid growth in migration-based remittances, are more a reflection of household responses to changing political and economic circumstances. 2015-12-14 2024-08-01T02:52:11Z 2024-08-01T02:52:11Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150520 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150519 Open Access Public Library of Science Headey, Derek D.; Hoddinott, John F. 2015. Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0145738. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145738
spellingShingle maternal and child health
imunization
nutrition policies
stunting
malnutrition
nutrition
political institutions
children
vaccination
Headey, Derek D.
Hoddinott, John F.
Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title_full Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title_fullStr Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title_full_unstemmed Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title_short Understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in Nepal, 2001–2011
title_sort understanding the rapid reduction of undernutrition in nepal 2001 2011
topic maternal and child health
imunization
nutrition policies
stunting
malnutrition
nutrition
political institutions
children
vaccination
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150520
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