Shubh K. Kumar

Bio: Shubh K. Kumar is an academic researcher from World Bank. The author has contributed to research in topics: Food security & Malnutrition. The author has an hindex of 4, co-authored 4 publications receiving 52 citations.

Managing interactions between household food security and preschooler health

Abstract: Food security does not assure good nutrition The nutritional status of an individual is influenced not only by food but also by nonfood factors, such as clean water, sanitation, and health care The effect of all of these factors must be considered in efforts to rid the world of malnutrition Food security will result in good nutrition only if nonfood factors are effectively dealt with In this paper, Lawrence Haddad, Saroj Bhattarai, Maarten Immink, and Shubh Kumar show how malnutrition among preschool children is determined by a complex interaction of illness and lack of food The authors look at three countries —Ethiopia, Pakistan, and the Philippines — to study how food availability and diarrhea interact and what this interaction means for preschooler malnutrition Their results show that the links between food consumption, diarrhea, and malnutrition are stronger than most economic studies have assumed When diarrhea is prevalent, the effects of food shortages on child malnutrition are worse, and when food is scarce, the effects of diarrhea on child malnutrition are worse

Child care practices associated with positive and negative nutritional outcomes for children in Bangladesh

Abstract: This study attempts to identify characteristics of the existing child and the maternal care environment that could be used as a basis for designing policies and programs to improve the nutritional status of children For the present study, all children between 6-18 months of age were selected from a nutrition survey of a cross section of 741 households conducted by the IFPRI Bangladesh Food Policy Project in February-March 1992 Information was obtained on feeding practices of infants and mothers, indicators of psychosocial care, and health and hygiene practices In this study, information on child care practices obtained together with information from the original nutrition survey on maternal and child nutrition, individual food consumption, and household demographic and socioeconomic status was used Children who exhibited the best growth status, holding age and income level constant, compared to the others in the same environmental setting, are identified as positive deviants Those with the worst growth are categorized as negative deviants Children falling in-between positive and negative deviants are labeled as median growers Even though an increase in income was found to be associated with improving child nutrition, on average, this association was not very evident at the two tails of the nutrition status distribution, with household income of negative deviant children higher than for both the positive deviants and median growth children, implying a limited access or allocation of household income by mothers in these households, and the relevance of non-income factors A selection of caring practices and indicators were identified for infant feeding, complementary feeding, maternal diet and health, psychosocial care, and health and hygiene practices

More than food is needed to achieve good nutrition by 2020

Abstract: A primary focus of the IFPRI 2020 Vision initiative is to find ways for people to attain food security, that is, sufficient food to lead healthy and productive lives. But what is "sufficient"? And is providing access to food the primary means of protecting people (particularly women and children) against malnutrition, which now faces millions of people around the world? Recent evidence indicates that improvements in household food security, as measured by adequate calories, do not necessarily translate into improvements in the nutritional status of women and children. One reason for persistent malnutrition may lie in the complex interaction between food supply and illness, which is influenced by the overall health environment. This is often called the "leaking bucket effect," wherein improvements in access to the foods that are important for good nutritional status may be offset by poor access to nonfood inputs, such as quality health care facilities and services, education, sanitation, and clean water or ineffective mechanisms for delivering these services. If this is so, greater emphasis should be placed on improving access to these nonfood inputs in order to achieve the 2020 Vision. This brief examines these issues.

Explaining Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries: A Cross-Country Analysis

Abstract: "One in three pre-school children in the developing world is undernourished. As a consequence, their human rights are violated. In addition, they are more likely to have impaired immune systems, poorer cognitive development, lower productivity as adults, and greater susceptibility to diet-related chronic diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease later in life. Undernourished female preschoolers are likely to grow into undernourished young women who are more likely to give birth to babies who are undernourished even before they are born, thus perpetuating the inter-generational transmission of deprivation. Reducing these unacceptably high numbers remains a tremendous challenge to public policy. As a guide to the direction of future efforts, this research report examines the success of the efforts of the past 25 years to reduce preschooler undernutrition. The report uses an econometric model to identify the factors associated with the reduction in undernutrition. The formulation of the econometric model is guided by the widely accepted food-care-health conceptual model of child growth. The contributions of both underlying and basic determinants to reductions in undernutrition are assessed using the model. The potential of these factors to further reduce undernutrition is evaluated in a region-by-region priority-setting exercise. In addition, projections of child nutrition are made under various scenarios to the year 2020. What will it take to dramatically reduce undernutrition in the next 20 years? The report attempts some broad answers to these questions..." (Forward by Per Pinstrup-Andersen)

Urban livelihoods and food and nutrition security in Greater Accra, Ghana

Abstract: Published in collaboration with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and WHO

Geography and Causes of Food Insecurity in Developing Countries (The)

Abstract: At the 1996 World Food Summit, 186 countries made a commitment to reduce the number of chronically undernourished people by half by 2015. In order to formulate effective policies for reaching this goal, a thorough understanding of the location and causes of food insecurity is needed. This paper provides a broad overview of the current character of food insecurity in developing countries, focusing on two questions: (1) Why are they food insecure? and (2) Why are the food insecure? To answer the latter question data from 58 developing countries with high prevalences of food insecurity are employed to examine the relative importance of two of food insecurityi¾’s most basic causes: national food availability and the inability of people to access food due to poverty. Using child malnutrition as a proxy (along with descriptive controls for non-food determinants of malnutrition), the paper finds little correlation between national food availabilities and food insecurity. The group of countries that exhibit the highest severity of food insecurity are those with high poverty and food (dietary energy) surpluses, consistent with the view that poverty is the most widespread cause of food insecurity in the 1990s. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the analysis for appropriate geographical and policy targeting to improve food security for the greatest numbers of people at the fastest pace, now and into the 21st century.

Socio-economic differentials in child stunting are consistently larger in urban than rural areas

Abstract: Urban-rural comparisons of childhood undernutrition suggest that urban populations are better-off than rural populations. However, these comparisons could mask the large differentials that exist among socioeconomic groups in urban areas. Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 11 countries from three regions were used to test the hypothesis that intra-urban differentials in child stunting were greater than intra-rural differentials, and that the prevalence of stunting among the urban and the rural poor was equally high. A socioeconomic status (SES) index based on household assets, housing quality, and availability of services was created separately for rural and urban areas of each country, using principal components analysis. In most countries, stunting in the poorest urban quintile was almost on par with that of poor rural dwellers. Thus, malnutrition in urban areas continues to be of concern, and effective targeting of nutrition programs to the poorest segments of the urban population will be critical to their success and cost-effectiveness.