Women’s empowerment and child nutrition in a context of shifting livelihoods in Eastern Oromia, Ethiopia

Frontiers in Nutrition

Nutrition

Gireesh Rajashekara¹  Jafer Kedir Amin²  Arie H. Havelaar³  Nitya Singh³  Sarah L. McKune⁴  Mark J. Manary⁵  Kedir Teji Roba⁶  Ibsa Abdusemed Ahmed⁷  Karah Mechlowitz⁸  Yang Yang⁹  Dehao Chen^1,10  Xiaolong Li^1,10  Adriana Joy Cheraso^1,10  Wondwossen A. Gebreyes^1,11  Abdulmuen Mohammed Ibrahim^1,12  Jemal Y. Hassen^1,13  Ibsa Aliyi Usmane^1,13  Anna Rabil^1,14 

[1] Center for Food Animal Health, Department of Animal Sciences, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, United States;College of Veterinary Medicine, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;Department of Animal Sciences, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Food Systems Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Center for African Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Department of Pediatrics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States;Department of Public Health and Health Policy, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;Department of Public Health and Health Policy, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;School of Public Health, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States;Global One Health Initiative, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States;Office of Research Affairs, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;School of Rural Development and Agricultural Innovation, College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Haramaya University, Haramaya, Ethiopia;Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States;

关键词: women’s empowerment;    child nutrition;    livelihood;    livestock production;    khat;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnut.2023.1048532

 received in 2022-09-19, accepted in 2023-05-24,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Agriculture, and particularly livestock and animal source foods, has been closely linked to improvements in human nutrition. Production, income, and women’s empowerment improve household food security and child nutritional outcomes in interacting ways. Khat production in Eastern Ethiopia is changing the economic and livelihood landscape for communities that have traditionally relied upon small-scale mixed agriculture and livestock production. How this shifting livelihood landscape and the empowerment of women in these communities are affecting nutritional outcomes has not been investigated. Using cross-sectional data collected during formative research for the Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) project, we developed models to examine the roles of livelihood activities, including livestock production, staple crop production, and khat production, and women’s empowerment in child nutrition outcomes. Survey participants were randomly selected mothers of children aged 10–15 months from Haramaya district, Eastern Hararghe, Oromia, Ethiopia. Nested logistic regression models were performed for each nutrition outcome: children’s animal source food consumption, children’s dietary diversity, and child stunting, wasting, and underweight. Explanatory variables included those for livelihood (tropical livestock unit, crop production, and khat production ladder) and women’s empowerment (as indicated by domains of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index), and covariates including child sex, mother’s age, mother’s education, assets, income, and kebele. Results indicated that khat production and tropical livestock units were not significantly associated with any of the child nutrition outcomes. However, results did indicate that the odds of reporting child animal source food consumption in households where the mother was empowered in the leadership domain was 3.33 times that in households where the mother wasn’t (p < 0.05). In addition, the odds of having a stunted child in households where the mother was empowered in the time domain was 2.68 times that in households where the mother wasn’t (p < 0.05). The results from this study both support and complicate the existing literature on the associations between women’s empowerment in agriculture and child nutrition outcomes, underscoring the important role that livelihood, contextual factors, and location may have on the complex relationship between empowerment domains and nutritional outcomes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Mechlowitz, Singh, Li, Chen, Yang, Rabil, Cheraso, Ahmed, Amin, Gebreyes, Hassen, Ibrahim, Manary, Rajashekara, Roba, Usmane, Havelaar and McKune.