Explaning Child Malnutrition In Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis

One out of every three children under five in developing countries is malnourished. This unacceptable state of affairs leads to a great deal of human suffering, both physical and emotional. It is a major drain on developing countries' prospects for development because malnourished children require more intense care from their parents and are less physically and intellectually productive as adults. It is also a violation of a child's human rights. While there is no question that malnutrition must come to an end, debates continue to flourish over what the most important causes of malnutrition are and what types of policies will be most successful in reducing it. The number of malnourished children in the developing world has remained fairly constant. However, while experience varies by region, the prevalence of malnutrition has been progressively declining: in 1970 the percent of underweight children under age five in developing countries was 46.5 percent; by 1995 this share had dropped to 31 percent (Figure 1). Explaining Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis, Research Report 111, by Lisa C. Smith and Lawrence Haddad, draws on the experience of 63 developing countries over this 25-year period to clarify the relative importance of the various determinants of child malnutrition for each developing region. Six factors are explored; the first four have a more direct influence on malnutrition. The four, ranked by their strength of impact, are women's education, national food availability, women's status relative to men's, and health environment quality. These are termed "underlying determinants." The other two, termed "basic determinants," are national income and democracy, which influence malnutrition indirectly by facilitating investment in the direct determinants. The report concludes by identifying policy priorities for reducing child malnutrition at the fastest pace now and over the coming years to 2020 for each developing region. The method employed is country fixed-effects regression analysis.