Nutrition researchers are puzzled by the ‘Asian Enigma’ – the question of why malnutrition is more prevalent among children in South Asia than in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) – despite the fact that other determinants of well-being (per capita income, democracy, food supplies, safe water, health services and education) are generally higher in South Asia. As gender inequality emerges as a key factor defining nutrition outcomes, it is important for interventions to bring the two issues together to jointly achieve the Millennium Development Goals of ending malnutrition and hunger and empowering women.

Research from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) sought answers by analysing demographic and health data for over a hundred thousand children in 36 developing countries. In a major report IFPRI provides evidence that women’s status as compared with men’s has an important influence on children’s nutritional status.

Women with low status have weaker control over household resources, tighter time constraints, less access to information and health services, poorer mental health and lower self-esteem. These factors are closely tied to women’s own nutritional status and the quality of care they receive. This, in turn affects children’s birth weights and the kind of care they receive.

Comparisons of data from South Asia and SSA show that the malnutrition costs of gender inequality in South Asia are high:

• While 30 per cent of children under the age of 5 years in SSA are malnourished, the corresponding figure for South Asia is close to 50 per cent.
• If women and men had equal status, underweight rate for children less than 3 years of age would drop by about thirteen percentage points in South Asia and three percentage points in SSA – there would be 13.4 million fewer malnourished Asian children and 1.7 million less Africans.
• Women’s shares of the labour force and earned income are much lower in South Asia than in SSA, indicating that Asian women have less control over economic resources.
• The percentage of underweight women in South Asia is four times higher than that of SSA.
• Sixty per cent of South Asian women have iron deficiency anemia, compared with forty per cent in SSA.
• Whilst the proportion of newborns with low birth weight is one-third in India and one-half in Bangladesh, it is estimated to be only one-sixth in SSA.

Some of the reasons that a better social status for women is associated with improved child nutritional status are that women with higher status have better nutritional status themselves and higher quality prenatal and birthing care. Further, they initiate breastfeeding and introduce complementary foods in a timely manner and are more likely to treat children’s illnesses and immunise them.

Urgent action is needed to end the tragedy whereby one in three children in developing countries is malnourished. Policies to eradicate the hitherto neglected issue of gender discrimination and to reduce power inequalities are essential in South Asia and elsewhere:

IFPRI recommends:

• incentives to promote girls’ education: providing food for young schoolgirls in Bangladesh has boosted attendance and achievement
• programmes to improve the nutritional status of adolescent girls and young women
• increased access to reproductive health services
• subsidised child care and credit and welfare benefits targeted at women
• affirmative action to protect women’s labour, property and inheritance rights
• efforts to improve women’s status to be accompanied by efforts to protect, support and promote breastfeeding, because women with higher status tend to reduce the duration of breastfeeding.

Stand-alone nutrition policy cannot overcome gender discrimination. The gender issue must be mainstreamed into the public domain. There is no longer any doubt that policies to eradicate gender discrimination not only benefit women but also improve the health, longevity, mental alertness, physical capacity and productivity of the next generation of young adults.

Source(s):
‘The importance of women’s status for child nutrition in developing countries’ by Lisa C. Smith, Usha Ramakrishnan, Aida Ndiaye, Lawrence Haddad, and Reynaldo Martorell, 2003, Research Report 131, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), December 2003 Full document.

Funded by: Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)

id21 Research Highlight: 24 May 2004

Further Information:
Lisa C. Smith
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20006
USA

Tel: 1 202 862 5600
Fax: 1 202 467 4439
Contact the contributor: L.C.Smith@cgiar.org

International Food Policy Research Institute

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