The Possibility of Infants' Nutritional Improvement through Market in Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20575
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 41:Agricultural economics and rural sociology, agricultural engineering, and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Sakurai Takeshi 東京大学, 大学院農学生命科学研究科(農学部), 教授 (40343769)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 栄養改善 / 乳児 / 栄養補助食品 / 貧血 / 市場 / 都市部 / サブサハラ・アフリカ / ガーナ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The study found through experiments in Ghana that informing mothers about their children's exact nutritional status improves their children's nutritional status. This suggests that 'improving nutrition through the market' could be feasible if current mother and child health check-ups included the assessment of children's nutritional status. However, this study also showed that information provision alone is not effective when mothers are unaware of the measures to be taken, as in the case of anemia in children. In this regard, improving mothers' nutritional knowledge, e.g. through guidance from nurses, is also necessary. Furthermore, this study showed that free distribution of nutritional supplements for a short period of time increases the demand for such products due to the mothers' learning effect. In other words, free distribution does not necessarily hinder 'improved nutrition through the market'.

Free Research Field

農業経済学、開発経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、サブサハラ・アフリカ（SSA）において残された大きな課題である乳幼児の栄養改善について、栄養に関する適切な知識を母親に与えれば、母親の自由な選択により栄養改善は実現可能であることを見いだした。SSAの乳幼児の栄養改善に市場が機能していることを明らかにしたことに学術的意義があるだけでなく、持続可能性の乏しい栄養補助食品や補助剤の無償配布を代替する新しい施策の立案に貢献したことに大きな社会的意義がある。