Browsing by Author "Mkupete, Mkupete Jaah"

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    Examining child health and nutrition inequalities in Tanzania
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Mkupete, Mkupete Jaah; Von Fintel, Dieter; Burger, Ronelle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Economics.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: More than one-third of stunted children under the age of five reside in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to the multifaceted underlying causes of malnutrition, this has become a challenging situation to address. Tanzania is among the top five countries in Eastern and Southern Africa with unacceptably high prevalence and spatial inequality in malnutrition, making it an interesting case study for generating evidence to inform policies in sub-Saharan Africa. Over three chapters, this thesis attempted to explain the persistent malnutrition and inequality in malnutrition and highlight potential pathways to tackle it using data from Tanzania. Chapter 2 examines the impact of the maize price fluctuation on the growth of the children from households that produce foods and those which do not. Chapter 3 explored the impact of meat and milk consumption on child growth and how the effects are mediated by keeping homestead livestock. Chapter 4 estimates the inequality of opportunity in malnutrition and considers the contribution made by access to water and sanitation. Three major findings emerged from this thesis. The first relates to the heterogeneity impact of high maize prices on the growth of children from food-producing and food non-producing households. While a large body of research advocates for low food prices to protect children's nutrition, this thesis found that children from households that produce food could benefit from high prices. The negative impact of high maize price on growth is significantly more stronger on children from households that do not produce food than from food producing households. The results also show that girls from food non-producing households suffered more than boys from high maize prices. Across children of different ages, the study found that children aged 24-35 months who were no longer breastfeeding and began to eat from the same plate as older household members are more vulnerable to shock than other age groups. The mechanism through which the maize price affects child growth is by reducing micronutrient and diet diversity in food non-producing households and increasing consumption in the food producers. Second, the results show that the effects of milk are revealed after transitioning from breastfeeding, while the effects of meat is insignificant in all age groups. Specifically, milk significantly led to higher growth in children aged 24-35 months and 36-60 months living in households which own mixed but. Third, the findings reveal that 20 per cent of inequality of opportunity in Tanzania needs to be compensated in order for equality of opportunity to prevail. Strikingly, the results show that the circumstances affecting children in urban and rural areas are different. Water and sanitation contribute 42 per cent of the inequality of opportunity in rural areas. Intergenerational aspects, early life feeding practices and market volatility were found to be more important in urban areas than rural areas. Overall, the results suggest that for the effective reduction of malnutrition, public health interventions should consider the different underlying levels and causes of child malnutrition between subgroups and the impact that a range of interventions could have on children from rural and urban areas. Policies that address the needs of specific groups could effectively reduce malnutrition in Tanzania. A combination of nutrition and water and sanitation interventions has the potential to reduce both the prevalence of malnutrition and inequality of opportunity in Tanzania.