Charting the cost of nutritionally-adequate diets in Uganda, 2000-2011

Malnutrition rates have been on the decline in Uganda over the past two decades but remain above targets set as part of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Challenges to achieving nutritional improvements result, in part, from high staple foods prices, which raise the cost of the food basket and increase the risk of food and nutrition insecurity, especially for poor households who are net buyers of staple foods. In this paper we measure the cost of a nutritionally-adequate diet in Uganda across locations and over time. We use a linear programming model and observed prices to compute the lowest-cost diet in five markets, subject to a range of nutrient-specific constraints. We compare this cost to the Ugandan poverty line over the same period. We show that the real cost of obtaining a nutritionally-adequate diet grew at a rate of 3 to 9 percent per year over the period 2000 to 2011. Diet costs have exceeded the poverty line for most years since 2000, with the gap widening in the period 2007-2008. Our results highlight the importance of food prices to overall nutrition, and document spatial heterogeneity in diet costs in Uganda. Findings underscore the importance of developing and supporting interventions that raise the purchasing power of the poor and increase nutrition education and outreach aimed at cost-effectively achieving dietary diversity.