The Nexus between Food Insecurity and Malnutrition

Theoretical Background

Food Insecurity as an underlying cause of malnutrition

In Nigeria, one out of every three children is stunted and 7.8 percent of children are wasted, 1.9 million children are at the risk of death resulting from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), 71 percent of children and 48 percent of women of reproductive age are anaemic (Stevens, 2013). Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations Globally (SPRING), a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USIAD), developed a conceptual framework in 2014. The framework linked agriculture (food production and agricultural income) to nutrition outcomes by identifying three primary pathways namely: food production to make diverse and nutrient-rich food available for consumption; income to purchase nutritious foods and pay for healthcare services as well as improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) products and services; and women empowerment including access to and control over productive resources (SPRING, 2018).

 There is a lot of complexity involved in studying the linkage between food security and positive nutritional outcomes especially as the two concepts have become global concerns in the face of rising malnutrition challenges, growing populations and unending shocks and disasters across the world (Adeniyi, 2016). Also, food security has widely and oftentimes been perceived from the food availability angle alone without due consideration for the other dimensions of food security namely: food accessibility, food utilization and stability. Emmanuel O. O (2012) counselled that food security should not only be seen from the perspectives of quantitative availability alone. Food availability is for a nation or household to have enough food required to meet the needs of the people within the nation or household at all times; accessibility implies having economic and physical access to sufficient and nutritious food required to function optimally both mentally and physiologically (Amaka G. Metu, 2016). Food utilization, another important dimension of food security, reflects the outcome of inadequate food intake either quantitatively or qualitatively, and the ability of the body system to utilize the food. Food utilization is usually measured by nutrition levels of children 0 – 59 months of age in the form of stunting[1], wasting[2], and underweight[3]. Agboola P.O (2013) complemented the discussion that food stability implies that nations and households have reliant means of continuously having access to sufficient foods even in the face of shocks, disasters and uncertainties. Such shocks include droughts, flood, rising food prices, market dysfunctionality, volatility in global food market prices, conflicts, political instability among others.

 It is very important to lay the foundation that recognizes the critical linkage between food insecurity and malnutrition as this will help to properly situate identified causes of malnutrition in the right premise. A proper diagnose of malnutrition situation must be linked with food insecurity at the household levels while also reflecting on the larger livelihoods implication of the concepts.  The study will therefore briefly review the UNICEF Conceptual Framework and Sustainable Livelihoods Framework developed by the Department for International Development (DFID).

UNICEF’s Conceptual Framework

The United Nation’s Children and Emergency Fund (UNICEF) provided a logical linkage between food security at the household level and nutritional outcomes. In its Conceptual Framework, also referred to as the malnutrition causality model in some literature, it described how malnutrition is a direct consequence of different layers of factors.

The framework, shown in the diagram above, recognizes the immediate, the underlying, and the basic causes of malnutrition. It presents an interesting picture of how the causes of malnutrition and the different nutritional outcomes are feeding back into the loop of potential vicious cycles aggravating poverty, hunger, and general underdevelopment in the long run.  For the purpose of this study, the focus will be on both the immediate and underlying causes of malnutrition as conceptualized by the framework (UNICEF, 2015).

Immediate causes of malnutrition are inadequate dietary intake and disease which are direct consequences of the underlying causes identified as household food insecurity (lack of food, lack of access, and poor utilization at the household level), inadequate care, inappropriate feeding practices, and unhealthy environments among others. In order to visualize the importance of the connection between food security at the household levels, it will be good to ruminate over the outcome of malnutrition especially in children and pregnant women for example. Mortality and morbidity are short term consequences of under-nutrition in children and pregnant women and could be more devastating in the long term. For instance, the consequences of stunting, an outcome of chronic malnutrition, can extend to adulthood increasing risks of poor pregnancy outcomes, impaired cognition that results in poor school performance, reduced economic productivity and earnings, and future risks for overweight and subsequently NCDs such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

 Action Against Hunger, a United Kingdom-based Charity fighting global poverty and hunger especially in developing countries, noted that “Today, 55 million children under 5 years of age around the world are acutely malnourished. Over a third of these children, an estimated 19 million, suffer from the most severe form of acute malnutrition. Without treatment these children are at imminent risk of dying and of never achieving their full growth potential. Only 3 percent of these children are receiving treatment, even though acute malnutrition can be prevented and treated successfully. Solutions are known, tested and feasible.” It further stated that “Acute malnutrition is the result of everyday deprivation and seasonal hardship and is not caused only by one-off crises as is commonly perceived.” (ACF, 2010). The stamenets made by ACF are direct indications of the severity of malnutritoon to the overall development objective of any nation with dire consequences for the entire population if not well addressed and timely.

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

In 1996, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, developed the Sustainable Livelihoods Conceptual Framework which considers critical elements affecting how people obtain their income, food, and general livelihoods wellbeing. The framework identified five key assets categories that should be accumulated and strengthened in order to maintain a resilient livelihood that can withstand all forms of shocks. These asset categories, also called the assets pentagon, are natural, physical, human, financial, and social assets that individuals and households are expected to continually strengthen for them to achieve food security. Livelihoods and long-term development programming by development agencies always consider these assets from the perspective of acquisition, strengthening, increase, and application. It is a wholistic approach to building sustainable means for people to achieve their potentials as it encompasses all that are required to function properly including health infrastructure, policies and programmes and cultural beliefs. The framework also considers vulnerability context that might constrain the effective realization of the potentials of the asset pentagon (ACF, 2010).

 The importance of livelihoods assessment in food security studies is amplified with the fact that household food security is a function of how and where people obtain their foods, the kind of resources (assets) available to them and their level of exposure to shocks and disasters. The framework looks again at the need to strengthen livelihood resilience in anticipation for shocks and stresses to be able to withstand such shocks and recover quickly without resorting to negative and destructive strategies.

Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (DFID, 1996)

Expected outcomes of this framework includes increasingly sustainable income, increased wellbeing, reduced vulnerability, sustainable use of natural resources and food security at the household levels. The framework sets the ground for the design and development of intervention programmes targeted at the vulnerable people across the world.

Drivers of Food Insecurity in Nigeria

In 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), declared that about 7.1 million people in Nigeria are facing acute food insecurity and are in need of emergency life saving and livelihood protection (FAO, 2017). The World Food Programme released a similar report earlier in 2013 in which it was stated that Nigeia had an average energy intake of 1730 Kilocalorie and an average protein supply of 64 grams per capita per day showing a gross deficiency below minimum recommended daily intake of 2500 – 3400 Kilocalorie per person (WFP, 2013). Abimbola O. A and Kayode A.A (2013) quoting the 2012 Global Hunger Index Report, that Nigeria is on a Global Hunger Index (GHI) rank of 40 among 79 countries in 2012, together with rising food prices, malnutrition and deaths as a result of wide-spread poverty is an indication of the prevalence of food insecurity in the country. It is also a sign of extreme suffering for millions of poor people.

Similarly, Nigeria was ranked 84 out of 119 on the 2017 Global Hunger Index[4] - a significant improvement, up 25.5 points, from 2008; the country was ranked 152 out of 188 countries in the 2015 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index, a slight fall from its ranking of 151 in 2014.[5] Amaka G.M et al (2016) revealed that there was a shortfall in domestically produced food in Nigeria as popuation grew at the rate of about 3.8 percent and food production was growing at a rate less than one percent. She went ahead to say that there was an inbalance on the demand and supply sides of food because of factors such as inconsistent goovernment policies, environmental degradation and non-sustainable agricultural production.

Scholars have shared divergent opinions on what actually drives food insecurity in Nigeria, and while some believe that food production and productivity should be strenghtened to guarantee food security, others opined about stronger policy enviroment and macro-economic strategy development for the country (Martin, 2017). The focus on agricultural productivity as a strategy to combat growing food insecurity in Nigeria has been masking the other salient, but critcally important, dimensions to food security. While it is true that increased food production might lead to availability and affordability of nutrient-rich food commodities, it is insufficient to guarantee accessibility in both economic and physical terms and these do not in any way strenghten the utilization pillar of food security. Richard U.N (2016) believed that the interplay of market dynamics is also affecting production and availability of food for poor rural households, he situated his argument on the premise that illegal food importation is making locally produced food commodities expensive and beyond the reach of ordinary people (Richard, 2016). On his own part, Mohammed S.B (2015) insisted that social safety programmes targetting the poor must be implemented by the government so as to be able to reach the needy in the society. He further stated that the economic costs of not targetiing the poor through strategic programmes far outweighs the benefit (Mohammed S. , 2015).

With an estimated population of 182 million people (50.5 percent male and 49.5 percent female) in 2016 and an annual growth rate of 3.2 percent, Nigeria’s population is projected to reach 440 million people by 2050 (Iyangbe, 2017). At this rapid rate of population growth, food availability, affordability, accessibility, and utilization must significantly and consistently improve to prevent food insecurity and malnutrition (Global Food Security Index (2014). , 2014). Despite the sector’s performance shortfalls, agriculture is the mainstay of the country’s economy, employing approximately two-thirds of the total labour force and contributing 24 percent of the national GDP. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of cassava, yam, and cowpea, yet, due to low crop productivity, the country is a food deficit nation and depends on grain, livestock products, and fish imports to meet local demand.[6] Of an estimated 71 million hectares of cultivable land, only half is currently used for farming. There is tremendous potential to turn the country into a food-secure nation if the appropriate policies are put in place and implemented.

The Boko Haram (BH) and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgencies, and the resulting counter-insurgency measures by the Nigerian military, have exacerbated food vulnerabilities and social insecurity in north-eastern Nigeria. Attacks have led to population displacement and severely reduced agricultural production, trade, and market activities. The Niger Delta is also prone to militant activities due to deep-rooted socio-economic problems in the region. Productivity of farmlands in the Delta region has been dramatically reduced as a result of oil spills and environmental contamination. Ongoing herder-farmer conflicts affecting the country, particularly in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States have significantly increased the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the country. These regional vulnerabilities illustrate the critical need to build the affected populations’ capacities to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in order to achieve and sustain economic recovery and transformation.

It must be reckoned that different opinions held by different scholars are all right and correct to the extent of the context in which the scholars are researching. Issues of food insecurity in Nigeria, as elsewhere, is such a complex one that no linearistic approach can be offered to addressing it. It is the opinion of this writer that a deeply structured, context-specific, integrated approach will have to be developed to tackle incidences of food insecurity across Nigeria.

Olumide Ojo

February 2020

[1] Height for age, a dreadful irreversible malnutrition outcome for children.

[2] Weigh for height.

[3] Weigh for age.

[4] Global Food Policy Report. IFPRI 2018.

[5] https://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI

[6] IFPRI (2012). Global Food Security Report.