Healthy Diets in Eight West African Countries: Access and Preferences

We examine the relationship between income, a!ordability, and healthy diet consumption in eight West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries using household survey data. We estimate an Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) demand system for ten goods, including six healthy food groups, and analyze how consumption patterns vary with the cost and a!ordability of healthy diets. We find that while the affordability of healthy diets improves uniformly with income, this does not translate proportionally into better dietary intakes. Income elasticity estimates are larger for ”other foods” and non-food items than healthy diet components, suggesting that income growth may not systematically improve nutrition. These findings suggest that improving economic access alone using policy tools such as income transfers may not be enough to address dietary quality in the region. We argue that alternative policies, such as in-kind transfers of healthy foods or vouchers targeting specific foods, could be more e!ective but may be logistically challenging.