Despite impressive progress in the fight against malnutrition and hunger in recent years, food and nutrition insecurity remains a major concern in Sub-Saharan African countries. According to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “153 million individuals, about one out of four individuals above 15 years of age in Sub-Saharan Africa, suffered from severe food insecurity in 2014-2015.” The consequences of this food insecurity and malnutrition pose a threat to human development, social peace, health, and consequently, the overall economic development of the region. Furthermore, these consequences call for urgent efforts to create and spur an enabling policy environment for improving food and nutrition security.
In a new publication in World Development, IFPRI Research Analyst Adebayo Isaiah Ogunniyi and his colleagues employ panel data covering 15 countries from 1996 to 2015 to investigate the growth of remittances and governance quality on food and nutrition security. The recent significant increase in remittances has great potential for improving the economic conditions of households in low-income economies. Similarly, governance quality is perceived to be an essential element for fostering an adequate policy environment, which is key to enhancing national food and nutrition security as well as economic growth. Through their analysis, Adebayo and colleagues employ a dynamic modeling approach to rigorously examine the long-term impacts of remittances, governance quality, and other factors on food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Results from their analysis reveal that governance quality has a significant positive effect on nutrition security but not on food security. This implies that the beneficial effect of governance quality is nuanced; when examining the control of corruption as a measure of governance quality, both nutrition and food security were improved. Similarly, remittances were found to have a positive effect on both food and nutrition security. Interestingly, the interaction between governance quality and remittances also had a higher and positive significant effect on food and nutrition security.
It is important to note, however, that although the results suggest an overall positive association between remittances and food and nutrition security, remittances are unpredictable in terms of their frequency, value, and access. As such, remittances must be considered along with other policy measures to improve food and nutrition security. Additionally, food security and nutrition security do not necessarily go hand-in-hand; improvements in food security can be achieved without improvements in nutrition status. Thus, both sets of indicators must be monitored by government authorities in Sub-Saharan African countries to tailor policy interventions to tackle these challenges.
Learn more about these findings through Adebayo’s full publication in World Development, “Governance quality, remittances, and their implications for food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
Adebayo Isaiah Ogunniyi is a Research Analyst in the Development Strategy and Governance Division (DSGD) at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), based in Abuja, Nigeria.
