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Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa:

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  • Headey, Derek D.
  • Stifel, David
  • You, Liangzhi
  • Guo, Zhe

Abstract

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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  • Headey, Derek D. & Stifel, David & You, Liangzhi & Guo, Zhe, 2017. "Remoteness, urbanization and child nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa:," IFPRI discussion papers 1694, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
  • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1694
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    3. Sophie Bruin & Just Dengerink & Jasper Vliet, 2021. "Urbanisation as driver of food system transformation and opportunities for rural livelihoods," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 781-798, August.
    4. Debela, Bethelhem Legesse & Ruml, Anette & Qaim, Matin, 2021. "The Effects of Contract Farming on Diets and Nutrition in Ghana," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315186, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Derek Headey & Marie Ruel, 2023. "Food inflation and child undernutrition in low and middle income countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Ameye, Hannah & De Weerdt, Joachim, 2020. "Child health across the rural–urban spectrum," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Benevenuto, Rodolfo & Caulfield, Brian, 2020. "Measuring access to urban centres in rural Northeast Brazil: A spatial accessibility poverty index," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Sophie de Bruin & Just Denerink & Pritpal Randhawa & Idrissa Wade & Hester Biemans & Christian Siderius, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 71: Urbanizing food systems: exploring opportunities for rural transformation," IFAD Research Series 320721, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    9. S. Block & B. Haile & L. You & D. Headey, 2022. "Heat shocks, maize yields, and child height in Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(1), pages 93-109, February.
    10. Ardyn Nordstrom & Christopher Cotton, 2020. "Impact of a Severe Drought on Education: More Schooling but Less Learning," Working Paper 1430, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    11. Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke & Chinyere Augusta Nwajiuba & Christiana Ogonna Igberi & Mark Umunna Amadi & Francis Chidi Anosike & Anthony Oko-Isu & Jane Munonye & Christian Uwadoka & Adewale Iyaniwura Ad, 2019. "Impacts of Caregivers’ Nutrition Knowledge and Food Market Accessibility on Preschool Children’s Dietary Diversity in Remote Communities in Southeast Nigeria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, March.
    12. Pieter Rutsaert & Jordan Chamberlin & Kevin Ong’are Oluoch & Victor Ochieng Kitoto & Jason Donovan, 2021. "The geography of agricultural input markets in rural Tanzania," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1379-1391, December.
    13. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam & Masud Alam & Munshi Naser .Ibne Afzal & Sakila Alam, 2021. "Nighttime Light Intensity and Child Health Outcomes in Bangladesh," Papers 2108.00926, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.

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    Keywords

    malnutrition; nutritional disorders; roads; transport infrastructure; urbanization; rural areas; diets; child nutrition; rural population; poverty; nutrition;
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