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Women Empowerment and Child Obesity: Evidence in Comoros, Malawi, and Mozambique

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Women and Sustainable Human Development

Part of the book series: Gender, Development and Social Change ((GDSC))

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Abstract

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing an increase in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, even though many countries are still grappling with the persistence of child malnutrition. A quarter of all obese and overweight preschool-aged children live in the region. There is, however, a gap in research on child obesity in African countries, and particularly on how mothers’ empowerment (either through employment or decision-making in the household) might affect this. This chapter fills this gap by applying a mixed-effects binary logistic regression model on nationally representative data from three countries in sub-Saharan Africa with particularly high levels of child obesity. This study finds different relationships between women’s empowerment and child obesity in different countries, pointing to the importance of further study in Africa to better identify the mechanisms driving these links. A better understanding of these relationships will not only help to inform policies aimed at empowering women in Africa but also assist in ensuring the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals that promote the improvement of child nutrition (SDG 2) and the achievement of gender equality (SDG 5).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Exact estimates differ slightly, but a systematic review by Keino et al. (2014) and Beegle et al. (2016) estimate this at close to 40% in 2012–2013.

  2. 2.

    There exists ample evidence that shows that improving the share of household income controlled by women and improving women’s participation in household expenditure decisions changes the pattern of household expenditure in a way that benefits children (World Bank 2011; Duflo 2000; Thomas 1990).

  3. 3.

    At the same time, DHS provides data on household wealth index, an index that measures relative living standards of households.

  4. 4.

    More statistical addendum of DHS is available on https://dhsprogram.com/data/.

  5. 5.

    In the latest DHS data available for Sierra Leone (2016), male data is not collected.

  6. 6.

    http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/technicalreport/en/.

  7. 7.

    In all the countries, this question is forwarded to the respondents (i.e. mothers in households). We assume that if a mother has some contribution towards her health decision, she will make the same contribution to her children’s health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Carolyn Chisadza, Eleni Yitbarek & Nicky Nicholls

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  1. Carolyn Chisadza
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  2. Eleni Yitbarek
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  3. Nicky Nicholls
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Correspondence to Eleni Yitbarek .

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  1. United Nations University (UNU-MERIT), Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Maty Konte  & Nyasha Tirivayi  & 

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Chisadza, C., Yitbarek, E., Nicholls, N. (2020). Women Empowerment and Child Obesity: Evidence in Comoros, Malawi, and Mozambique. In: Konte, M., Tirivayi, N. (eds) Women and Sustainable Human Development. Gender, Development and Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14935-2_15

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