Download or read book How Does Women s Time in Reproductive Work and Agriculture Affect Maternal and Child Nutrition Evidence from Bangladesh Cambodia Ghana Mozambique and Nepal written by Hitomi Komatsu and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are concerns that increasing women's engagement in agriculture could have a negative effect on nutrition because it limits the time available for nutrition-improving reproductive work. However, very few empirical studies have been able to analyze whether these concerns are well-founded. This paper examines whether an increase in women's time in agriculture adversely affects maternal and child nutrition, and whether the lack of women's time in reproductive work leads to poorer nutrition. Using data from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Nepal, we find that on the whole, in poor households, reductions in women's reproductive work time are detrimental to nutrition, especially for children. In contrast, women's and children's nutrition in nonpoor households is less sensitive to reductions in time on reproductive work. Working long hours in agriculture reduces women's dietary diversity score in Ghana and nonpoor women's in Mozambique. However, for poor women and children in Mozambique, and children in Nepal, working in agriculture in fact increases dietary diversity. This suggests that agriculture as a source of food and income is particularly important for the poor. Our results illustrate that women's time allocation and nutrition responses to agricultural interventions are likely to vary according to socioeconomic status and local context.

Download or read book The effect of insurance enrollment on maternal and child health care utilization written by Gajate-Garrido, Gissele and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-30 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Access to and use of health services are concerns in poor countries. If implemented correctly, health insurance may help solve these concerns. Due to selection and omitted variable bias, however, it is difficult to determine whether joining an insurance scheme improves medical care–seeking behaviors. This paper uses representative data for the whole country of Ghana and an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal impact on healthcare use of participating in Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme. Idiosyncratic variations in membership rules at the district level provide exogenous variation in enrollment. The instrument is the existence of nonstandard verification methods to allow enrollment of children. Using the 2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey and a census of all district insurance offices, this paper finds that insurance membership increases the probability of (1) seeking higher-quality (but no greater quantity of) maternal services and (2) parents’ becoming more active users of child curative care. Instrumental variable estimates are larger than ordinary least squares ones, indicating that “compliers” have much higher returns to being insured than the average participant. Results are robust to several validity checks; this paper shows that the instrument is indeed idiosyncratic and proves that government officials did not establish less-cumbersome membership rules in districts with worse initial indicators.

Download or read book The impact of agricultural extension services in the context of a heavily subsidized input system written by Ragasa, Catherine and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper aims to test this hypothesis and to contribute to better understanding of strategies to revitalize the agricultural extension system in Malawi. Specifically, it examines the interplay between the fertilizer subsidy and access to extension services, and their impact on farm productivity and food security in Malawi. Results show that the fertilizer subsidy has inconsistent impact on farm productivity and food security; at the same time, access to agricultural advice was consistently insignificant in explaining farm productivity and food security. Further analysis, however, shows that when access to extension services is unpacked to include indicators of usefulness and farmers’ satisfaction, these indicators were statistically significant. Households who reported that they received very useful agricultural advice had greater productivity and greater food security than those who reported receiving advice that they considered not useful. This result implies the need to ensure the provision of relevant and useful agricultural advice to increase the likelihood of achieving agricultural development outcomes

Download or read book Evaluation study of the IFPRI A4NH research program on diet quality and health of the poor written by Behrman, Jere R. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2019-06-22 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND) and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) have conducted research since 2003 on the critical links between nutrition, health, and agriculture. This evaluation considers the impact of the work carried out through 2016, looking at the research strategy, engagement, capacity building, and impact on programs and policies and global dialogue. Findings suggest that the Diet Quality and Health of the Poor program has been successful in developing and sharing valuable research, knowledge, and data, and has brought new issues and approaches to partners and stakeholders. Through a range of projects, the program has effectively engaged with stakeholders, partners, and governments to support capacity enhancement and to help shape national interventions to improve nutrition.

Download or read book Farm transition and indigenous growth written by Houssou, Nazaire and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-01-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper characterizes the transition from small-scale farming and the drivers of farm size growth among medium- and large-scale farmers in Ghana. The research was designed to better understand the dynamics of change in Ghana’s farm structure and contribute to the debate on whether Africa should pursue a smallholder-based or large-scale oriented agricultural development strategy. The results suggest a rising number of medium-scale farmers and a declining number of smallholder farmers in the country, a pattern that is consistent with a changing farm structure in the country’s agricultural sector. More important, findings show that the rise to medium- and large-scale farming is significantly associated with successful transition of small-scale farmers rather than entry of medium or large farms into agriculture, reflecting small-scale farmers successfully breaking through the barriers of subsistence agriculture into more commercialized production systems. The findings in this paper also suggest that some of the factors thought to be important for change in farm structure are no obstacle to farm size growth, even though they may foster transition. Notably, the results here diverge from the patterns observed in Zambia and Kenya, which indicate that the emergent farmers came mostly from the urban elite. Unfortunately, past and current policy discussions have not featured these emergent farmers sufficiently in the quest to transform agriculture in Ghana. Government should capitalize on these emergent farmers who have a demonstrated ability to graduate productively as it strives to address challenges in the smallholder sector.

Download or read book Empowerment and agricultural production written by Wouterse, Fleur Stephanie and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-02-19 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niger is a landlocked Sahelian country, two-thirds of which is in the Sahara desert, with only one-eighth of the land considered arable. Nevertheless, more than 90 percent of Niger’s labor force is employed in agriculture, which is predominantly subsistence oriented. Since the great famines of the 1970s and 1980s, the country has pursued agrarian intensification through technological change to address challenges to the food security situation. However, this approach has failed to recognize that the main characteristic of the Sahelian part of West Africa is the intricate complexity of the social, environmental, and economic dimensions that differentially affect male and female rural dwellers. One example is the patrilineal tenure system, which under increased population pressure has led to the exclusion of women and youth from agriculture in some areas. The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) indicates that access to land is one important dimension of empowerment. In order to assess the role of empowerment in agricultural production, we use new household- and individual-level WEAI data from Niger and regression analysis. Our results show that empowerment is important for agricultural production and that households in which adult individuals are more empowered are more productive. This means that other and possibly more effective pathways to agrarian intensification exist and important agricultural productivity gains could be made by empowering men and women in rural households.

Download or read book Ghana s macroeconomic crisis written by Younger, Stephen D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-01-08 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghana is in the midst of a severe but not unprecedented macroeconomic crisis. This paper helps to evaluate the government’s policy options by (1) explaining the crisis’ causes, and (2) comparing it to previous macroeconomic crises and the policies that corrected them. Two large shocks are to blame for the crisis: an increase in the fiscal deficit of about 6 percent of GDP and a reduction in hydroelectric production that has not been replaced with thermal generation. This latter is more difficult to quantify, but may be as large as 4 percent of GDP. While large, Ghana has recovered from similar shocks in the past, and with luck, should be able to do so now. But this will require reversal of the large increases in the public sector wage bill that drove much of the fiscal shock.

Download or read book Gender roles and food safety in 20 informal livestock and fish value chains written by Grace, Delia and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food-borne disease remains a major public health challenge in Africa and Asia. Most of the foods that carry the highest pathogen risk are produced by smallholder farmers, marketed through the informal sector, and sold in wet markets. Given the significant role of informal markets in African and Asian food systems, attention is invested in understanding (1) how the people that participate in informal markets are exposed to risk, and (2) how they manage risk. We conduct a participatory risk analysis with a gender lens in 20 livestock and fish value chains to study whether gender-based differences influence risk of food-borne disease. We find that socially constructed gender roles are more important determinants of health risk than biological differences between men and women. Variations in risk exposure between men and women are mainly due to gender-based differences in occupational exposure, and secondarily to differences in consumption patterns. Women are important but under-recognized risk managers in the realms of food production, processing, selling, preparation, and consumption. Understanding the influence of gender on risk exposure and management is essential for improving food safety in informal markets.

Download or read book Stories of change in nutrition written by Gillespie, Stuart and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-25 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper—which draws on inputs to, and discussions at, a methods development workshop—highlights the various concepts, methods, and tools that SoC researchers are considering to measure nutrition-relevant change in their respective countries. The focus is on nutrition-relevant policy and practice. These tools apply to 11 subthemes, which are to some extent sequential within policy/programming cycles: (1) assessing the nutrition problem, (2) stakeholder and institutional analysis/mapping, (3) understanding enabling environments for nutrition, (4) agenda setting and political commitment for nutrition, (5) policy formulation and policy processes, (6) multisectoral coordination, (7) implementation and vertical coherence, (8) scaling up, (9) assessing capacity, (10) assessing finance, and (11) monitoring, evaluation, and accountability. Examining these various methods and tools together allows for a holistic consideration of the processes that—while challenging to document and measure—play a key role in improving nutrition-relevant policy and practice, which, in turn, drives national achievement in reducing malnutrition.

Download or read book Returns to agricultural public spending in Africa south of the Sahara written by Benin, Samuel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-18 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using data on 34 countries in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) from 1980 to 2012, this paper assesses the returns to public spending in the agricultural sector, considering expenditures on agriculture as a whole versus expenditures on agricultural research. First, an aggregate production function is estimated using a fixed-effects, instrumental variables estimator to address potential endogeneity of agricultural expenditure and to obtain elasticities of land productivity with respect to total agricultural expenditure and agricultural research expenditure. Different model specifications are used to test the sensitivity of the results to different assumptions. The estimated elasticities are then used to estimate the rate of return to expenditure in different countries and groups of countries. The elasticity of land productivity with respect to total agricultural expenditure per hectare is estimated at 0.04, and elasticity with respect to agricultural research expenditure per hectare is estimated to be higher at 0.09. The aggregate returns to total agricultural expenditure and agricultural research expenditure in SSA are estimated at 11 percent and 93 percent, respectively. Comparative analysis of the estimates with those of previous studies, as well as across different countries and different groups of countries, is undertaken. Then implications are discussed for maintaining the high returns to agricultural research expenditure and for further studies on the low return to total agricultural expenditure, including more disaggregated analysis of expenditure on other functions besides research to better inform prioritization of agricultural expenditure.

Download or read book Farm household typologies and mechanization patterns in Nepal Terai written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Nepal formulated an agricultural mechanization promotion policy in 2014, there is still much to learn about tailoring mechanization policies to different types of farm households. The Terai belt in Nepal has seen steady growth in tractor use in the past 20 years, but heterogeneity exists among farm households. In this study, we use Nepal Living Standards Survey data to analyze such heterogeneity from a farm typology perspective. We characterize farm households based on use of external agricultural inputs, including tractors. Growth of tractor use in the Terai is associated with input use intensification per cultivated area, rather than significant expansion of cultivated area. Tractor use in the Terai appears to have grown as part of such land-saving intensification, although larger farm owners do hire in more tractors. We find that differences in household income portfolios are not straightforward between tractor renters and nonrenters, without clear differences in specialization of economic activities as well as farming systems. Tractor renters consist of various types, including the power-intensive mechanizer, intensive labor hirer, and fertilizer-based intensifier. Such heterogeneity recommends the use of tailored mechanization policy options.

Download or read book A thriving agricultural sector in a changing climate written by De Pinto, Alessandro and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2017-10-25 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given its heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture and projected climatic and weather changes, SSA faces multidimensional challenges in ensuring food and nutrition security as well as preserving its ecosystems. In this regard, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can play an important role in addressing the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change. CSA practices aim to achieve three closely related objectives: sustainably increase agricultural productivity, adapt to climate change, and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CSA objectives directly contribute to achieving the 2014 Malabo Declaration goals, which include commitments to (1) end hunger in Africa by 2025, (2) halve poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation, and (3) enhance the resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and other related risks. These linkages underscore the importance of including CSA in country and regional plans to achieve overarching development objectives in Africa, in particular food security and poverty reduction. The 2016 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR) examines the contribution of CSA to meeting Malabo Declaration goals by taking stock of current knowledge on the effects of climate change, reviewing existing evidence of the effectiveness of various CSA strategies, and discussing examples of CSA-based practices and tools for developing evidence-based policies and programs.

Download or read book Temporary and permanent migrant selection written by Chen, Joyce J. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-30 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The migrant selection literature concentrates primarily on spatial patterns. We integrate two workhorses of the labor literature, the Roy and search models, to illustrate the implications of migration duration for patterns of selection. Theory and empirics show that temporary migrants are intermediately selected on education, with weaker selection on cognitive ability. Longer migration episodes lead to stronger positive selection on both education and ability because the associated jobs involve finer employee-employer matching and offer greater returns to experience. Networks are more valuable for permanent migration, where search costs are higher. Labor market frictions explain observed complex network-skill interactions. When considering migrant selection, the economics literature has largely focused on patterns by area of origin. However, the duration of migration episodes–temporary versus permanent–is another important determinant of selection. We integrate two workhorses of the labor literature, the Roy model and a search model, to illustrate the implications of migration duration for patterns of self-selection. We provide theoretical and empirical evidence showing that, because short-term migration episodes have less scope for skill-based matching and greater need for screening, temporary migrants are more likely to display intermediate selection on education, with weaker selection on underlying cognitive ability. Longer term migration episodes, in contrast, allow for finer employee-employer matching and greater returns to experience, leading to stronger positive selection on both education and cognitive ability among permanent migrants. Networks are also found to be more valuable for permanent migration, where search costs tend to be higher. However, we also provide evidence of complex network-skill interactions, driven primarily by labor market frictions.

Download or read book Public private partnerships and the reduction of undernutrition in developing countries written by Hoddinott, John F. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-09 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper brings structure to the discussion of private-sector engagement in nutrition by clarifying different models of engagement, reviews the evidence base on public-private partnerships (PPPs) for the reduction of undernutrition, and outlines some potential ways forward. We find that there are few independent, rigorous assessments of the impact of commercial-sector engagement in nutrition. Considerable caution is thus warranted when assessing PPPs in nutrition. Looking forward, future progress requires that the private sector recognize that past and current actions by some firms have created an environment of mistrust. It requires that the public sector accept that sustainable PPPs are those which permit private firms to generate profits. There is significant scope for the private sector to drive innovations that could reduce undernutrition, and, more speculatively, there may be scope for the private sector to act as a financier. Underpinning all these efforts must lie open discussions of the objectives, roles, and expectations of all parties along with potential conflicts of interest; an open space or platform where issues and challenges can be discussed and addressed; incentives for the private sector to take on pro-nutrition roles; strong, transparent, and well-enforced monitoring processes; and serious, independent evaluations of these activities.

Download or read book Lost in translation written by Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a heated debate among policy makers, civil society, and analysts about the impact of trade and trade policies on food security. While there have been several empirical reviews on these issues the controversy has not abated. This paper surveys possible reasons why the polemic continues and why it may be difficult to settle it unequivocally. The reasons are related to the different notions of trade, food and nutrition security, the variety of possible indicators for those concepts, the multiplicity of channels through which trade and food and nutrition security notions interact, the diversity of analytical and quantitative approaches utilized, and differences in values and conceptual priors about the operation of the world economy. The paper concludes with some reflections about what can be reasonably said about the potential impacts of trade on food security.

Download or read book Why some are more equal than others written by Díaz-Bonilla, Eugenio and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-02-26 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food (in)security conditions differ across countries, and those differences affect the discussion of potential policy approaches. This paper reviews several approaches to creating country typologies of food (in)security conditions and then updates Díaz-Bonilla et al.’s 2000 IFPRI paper Food Security and Trade Negotiations in the World Trade Organization. The exercise uses five variables: domestic food production per capita (constant dollars per capita); a combination of calories and protein per capita; the ratio of total exports to food imports; the ratio of the nonagricultural population to total population; and a variable based on the mortality rate for children under 5. The raw values are all transformed into z-scores. The paper explains how the variables relate to the traditional dimensions of availability, access, and utilization in the definition of food security. Data for the variables correspond to the period 2009–2011 (or the latest available) and cover 155 developed and developing countries. Two clustering methods are applied: hierarchical and k-means. The hierarchical approach is used first, to determine potential outliers and to explore what would be a reasonable number of clusters. That analysis suggests that the maximum number of relevant clusters for the analysis is 10 and identifies three countries as outliers. We then use the k-means method to classify all other countries in one of the 10 different clusters or groups. The paper analyzes the average profile of each one of those groups and divides them into three categories of food insecure, intermediate, and food secure. We highlight the different profiles of each of the food-insecure clusters (such as whether they were rural or urban, trade stressed or not, and so on). Limitations related to land and water availability (measured as arable land, hectares per person, and renewable internal freshwater resources in cubic meters per capita) are incorporated into the analysis as an additional dimension to be considered. The paper closes with some policy considerations for the different types of clusters of food-insecure countries.

Download or read book A review of evidence on gender equality women s empowerment and food systems written by Njuki, Jemimah and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2021-07-14 with total page 55 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in food systems can result in greater food security and better nutrition, and in more just, resilient, and sustainable food systems for all. This paper uses a scoping review to assess the current evidence on pathways between gender equality, women’s empowerment, and food systems. The paper uses an adaptation of the food systems framework to organize the evidence and identify where evidence is strong, and where gaps remain. Results show strong evidence on women’s differing access to resources, shaped and reinforced by contextual social gender norms, and on links between women’s empowerment and maternal education and important outcomes, such as nutrition and dietary diversity. However, evidence is limited on issues such as gender considerations in food systems for women in urban areas and in aquaculture value chains, best practices and effective pathways for engaging men in the process of women’s empowerment in food systems, and for addressing issues related to migration, crises, and indigenous food systems. And while there are gender informed evaluation studies that examine the effectiveness of gender- and nutrition- sensitive agricultural programs, evidence to indicate the long-term sustainability of such impacts remains limited. The paper recommends keys areas for investment: improving women’s leadership and decision-making in food systems, promoting equal and positive gender norms, improving access to resources, and building cross-contextual research evidence on gender and food systems.