The effect of women's nutrition knowledge and empowerment on child nutrition outcomes in rural Ethiopia

    Melesse, M B (2021) The effect of women's nutrition knowledge and empowerment on child nutrition outcomes in rural Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics (TSI). pp. 1-17. ISSN 0169-5150

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    Abstract

    Child malnutrition remains widespread in Ethiopia. Women’s nutrition knowledge and empowerment are emphasized as key impact pathways for nutrition sensitive programs and interventions. This paper examines effects of women’s nutrition knowledge and empowerment on child nutrition outcomes using survey data from rural Ethiopia. Employing econometric strategies that account for potential endogeneity concerns, nutrition knowledge, and empowerment are found to have strong and significant effects on children’s dietary diversity and stunting. Their interaction is significantly correlated only with stunting, perhaps suggesting the importance of the interaction between nutrition knowledge and empowerment for long-term nutrition outcomes.Adisaggregated analysis of empowerment reveals that empowering women in household agricultural decisions and increasing their access to and control of economic resources are more promising for improving child nutrition.Overall, the findings suggest that efforts targeting to improve child nutrition in Ethiopia need to be complemented by efforts to improve women’s nutrition knowledge and empowerment.

    Item Type: Article
    Divisions: Research Program : East & Southern Africa
    CRP: UNSPECIFIED
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Child nutrition, Dietary diversity, Ethiopian, Stunting, Nutrition knowledge, Women’s empowerment
    Subjects: Others > Rural Development
    Others > Food and Nutrition
    Others > Gender Research
    Depositing User: Mr Arun S
    Date Deposited: 10 Aug 2021 10:50
    Last Modified: 10 Aug 2021 10:50
    URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/11868
    Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12668
    Projects: UNSPECIFIED
    Funders: UNSPECIFIED
    Acknowledgement: The author thanks the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) for financial support, and College of Business and Economics of Bahir Dar University for sharing data for this research. He is also grateful to the resource persons and members of AERC’s thematic research group four for their useful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
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