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PR, ISI; IFPRI3, FCND

Non-PR, IFPRI1, FCND, This study attempts to identify characteristics of the existing child and the maternal care environment that could be used as a basis for designing policies and programs to improve the nutritional status of children. For the present study, all children between 6-18 months of age were selected from a nutrition survey of a cross section of 741 households conducted by the IFPRI Bangladesh Food Policy Project in February-March 1992. Information was obtained on feeding practices of infants and mothers, indicators of psychosocial care, and health and hygiene practices. In this study, information on child care practices obtained together with information from the original nutrition survey on maternal and child nutrition, individual food consumption, and household demographic and socioeconomic status was used. Children who exhibited the best growth status, holding age and income level constant, compared to the others in the same environmental setting, are identified as positive deviants. Those with the worst growth are categorized as negative deviants. Children falling in-between positive and negative deviants are labeled as median growers. Even though an increase in income was found to be associated with improving child nutrition, on average, this association was not very evident at the two tails of the nutrition status distribution, with household income of negative deviant children higher than for both the positive deviants and median growth children, implying a limited access or allocation of household income by mothers in these households, and the relevance of non-income factors. A selection of caring practices and indicators were identified for infant feeding, complementary feeding, maternal diet and health, psychosocial care, and health and hygiene practices.

PR, IFPRI1; 2020, DGO, Food security does not assure good nutrition. The nutritional status of an individual is influenced not only by food but also by nonfood factors, such as clean water, sanitation, and health care. The effect of all of these factors must be considered in efforts to rid the world of malnutrition. Food security will result in good nutrition only if nonfood factors are effectively dealt with. In this paper, Lawrence Haddad, Saroj Bhattarai, Maarten Immink, and Shubh Kumar show how malnutrition among preschool children is determined by a complex interaction of illness and lack of food. The authors look at three countries —Ethiopia, Pakistan, and the Philippines — to study how food availability and diarrhea interact and what this interaction means for preschooler malnutrition. Their results show that the links between food consumption, diarrhea, and malnutrition are stronger than most economic studies have assumed. When diarrhea is prevalent, the effects of food shortages on child malnutrition are worse, and when food is scarce, the effects of diarrhea on child malnutrition are worse.

Non-PR, IFPRI training; IFPRI1; TCSP, DGO

Non-PR, IFPRI1; 2020, DGO, A primary focus of the IFPRI 2020 Vision initiative is to find ways for people to attain food security, that is, sufficient food to lead healthy and productive lives. But what is sufficient? And is providing access to food the primary means of protecting people (particularly women and children) against malnutrition, which now faces millions of people around the world? Recent evidence indicates that improvements in household food security, as measured by adequate calories, do not necessarily translate into improvements in the nutritional status of women and children. One reason for persistent malnutrition may lie in the complex interaction between food supply and illness, which is influenced by the overall health environment. This is often called the "leaking bucket effect," wherein improvements in access to the foods that are important for good nutritional status may be offset by poor access to nonfood inputs, such as quality health care facilities and services, education, sanitation, and clean water or ineffective mechanisms for delivering these services. If this is so, greater emphasis should be placed on improving access to these nonfood inputs in order to achieve the 2020 Vision. This brief examines these issues.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; 2020, DGO