Maternal Labour Supply and Child Nutrition in West Africa

Abstract

It is widely recognized that women in developing countries have dual roles as generators of household income and as primary caregivers to their children. Many policies directed at reducing poverty or malnutrition involve one or the other of these roles. Programs to reduce child malnutrition, for example, typically target mothers as caregivers. However, because of the time constraints women face, there are potential conflicts between women's different activities about which policy makers are rarely informed. Nutrition interventions have not usually considered the barriers to participation in such programs facing mothers who, either by choice or necessity, have entered the labour force (Leslie, 1988; Engle, 1994). Similarly, policies directed at improving female employment opportunities typically ignore women's important role in household activities related to children's healthy development. In this paper we address a potentially important implication of women's multiple roles and the time constraints they face: that female labour force participation, by reducing the time available for household activities related to child development, may place young children at nutritional risk.

Factors Contributing to Lower than Expected Recovery Rates of HIV Negative Children on the Therapeutic Feeding Program

“…The Bangladesh study showed that chances for survival for female children were very low as compared to males due to factors such as food sharing practices in the household. This is in line with [22], who found out that the female child had less nutritional status as compared to their male counterparts attributing to the possibility of discriminatory behaviour which favours males [26]. [27] revealed gender as a determinant of underweight as male children were more likely to be underweight as compared to their females.…”

“…This study showed that most caregivers had primary level of education and a few having reached secondary level. In some study, 46% caregivers had primary level and only 2% having secondary level [26]. According to Schnepf [25], caregiver education potrays the intellectual environment in which children are growing.…”

“…[22] concur when they argue that education affects the caregiving practices as this determines the extent to which one can process information and being acquainted with skills as well as being able to maintain sanitation in the environment. [26] noted that educated women tend to be active participants in the working population such that there is diminished activity which leads to reduced breast feeding time. There is also insufficient , time for healthy and nutritious food preparation which affect the child's nutrition status which has impact on the recovery rate.…”

Migration decisions of parents and the nutrition intakes of children left at home in rural China

“…Parental migration is likely to affect the time and labour allocation in both productive and reproductive activities, including home production and time spent in childcare (Stark and Bloom 1985;Glick and Sahn 1998). Thus, the parent's labour migration, which reduces the time available for the household activities related to child development, may place young children at a nutritional risk (Swart 2004).…”

Infant mortality and child nutrition in Bangladesh

“…Empirical research on the influence of maternal work on child nutrition is ambiguous (see Leslie, 1988 andGlick andSahn, 1995). However, given the traditional role of women in Bangladeshi society, it is likely that working women come from less affluent households.…”