30 September 2025, 15:30 CET
Seminar Room 1.204
Yeshwas Bogale
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Although there is increasing agreement on the need of strengthening household nutrition resilience, beyond food security, the criteria used to assess resilience usually lack in capturing important dietary vulnerabilities, particularly among young children and women. Evaluating dietary adequacy depends on these indicators, which also determine a household's ability to maintain nutritional wellbeing under stressful conditions. To this end, the analysis empirically tests the integration of MDD-W and MDD-IYCF into a resilience analysis using unique data from a FAO Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) Afghanistan Household Survey, implemented in 2024 and covering eight provinces. Our finding shows that incorporating individual-level nutrition indicators leads to nuanced understanding of food security and nutrition resilience. Many households considered as food secure based on FS household-level indicators were found to have poor MDD-W scores, therefore caloric sufficiency might cover dietary vulnerability. Data reveal fresh perspectives on the profile of nutritionally at-risk people and statistically significant changes in household resilience classification. The study also investigates socioeconomic and structural barriers to female participation in survey nutrition modules.
Evie Graus
University of Luxembourg
This paper examines the impact of road access on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1980 to 2012. Using geolocated data on child malnutrition and road networks, we assess the broader consequences of road infrastructure, balancing economic gains from accessibility against potential drawbacks such as ecological damage, land-use change, and dependence on external actors (e.g., pressure on smallholder farmers). To address endogeneity, we adopt an instrumental-variable approach, constructing fictitious road networks based on the inconsequential units framework. Our findings indicate that the benefits of roads outweigh their costs: proximity to paved roads significantly improves food security for young children. The main mechanisms are increases in healthcare utilization, household wealth, and cropland area, while market expansion points to the early stages of structural transformation.
Maarten Voors
Wageningen University
Investments in preventative care during early childhood is key to improving health and the accumulation of human capital. However, in West and Central Africa, almost 1 in 2 children in the poorest households are zero-dose. Many undervaccinated communities face access and affordability challenges. We use a cluster randomized trial in 450 communities that delivers a bundle of vaccines and health products to rural residents in Sierra Leone. We find that simply lifting access increases vaccination coverage and health product uptake substantively and cost effectively.