Small Area Estimation of Child Malnutrition in Ethiopian Woredas
2016
Sohnesen, Thomas Pave | Ambel, Alemayehu | Fisker, Peter | Andrews, Colin | Khan, Qaiser
Reducing child undernutrition is a key social policy objectiveof the Ethiopian government. Despite substantial reductionover the past decade and a half, child undernutrition is stillhigh. With 48 percent of children stunted, underweight, orwasted, undernutrition remains an important child healthchallenge. The existing literature highlights that the targetingof efforts to reduce undernutrition in Ethiopia isinefficient, in part because of the lack of data and updatedinformation. This paper remedies some of this shortfallby estimating levels of stunting and underweight in eachworeda for 2014. The estimates are small area estimationsbased on the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey andthe latest population census. It is shown that small areaestimations are powerful predictors of undernutrition, evencontrolling for household characteristics, such as wealth andeducation, and hence a valuable targeting metric. The resultsshow large variations in share of children undernourishedin each region, more than between regions. The results alsoshow that the locations with larger challenges depend on thechosen undernutrition statistic, as the share, number, andconcentration of undernourished children point to vastlydifferent locations. There is limited correlation between theshares of children underweight and stunted across woredas,indicating that different locations face different challenges.
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