Women empowerment and child diet diversity among children 6-24 months old in Zambia Patricia Sakala and Dr. Philip Curry (2017); University Of Dublin(tcd), Ireland.

Conclusion and Recommendations Outlines Background Objectives Methods Results Discussion Conclusion and Recommendations

Background Malnutrition is a serious problems in Zambia with 40% children stunted (CSO, 2014). Poor feeding practices Women’s disempowerment Lit. Shows that women empowerment interventions has positive influence on child nutrition in other countries as it increases women’s ability to channel resources to child nutrition (Malaipit et al). Women empowerment has been associated with better nutrition outcomes (Shroff et al. 2009) In Zambia, Different women empowerment programmes are being implemented in the country. Advocacy towards making women empowerment nutrition sensitive

Objectives of the study To examine the association between women empowerment dimensions and child diet diversity To assess the association between women empowerment dimensions and feeding children of the specific food groups

Relevance of the study Limited information on women empowerment and nutrition. women empowerment is context specific – need to have Zambian undrstanding Guide women empowerment programme design Strengthen collaboration among sector Improve support towards child nutrition programmes

Methods Secondary DDHS data 2013-2014 survey. Data access Cross sectional nationally representative data Data on women empowerment and child feeding Data access Authorization from measure DHS Access Data online Selection Criterior Married women 15 to 49 years Youngest child 6 to 23 months Answered questions

Variables assessed Child Diet Diversity Seven food groups Empowerment A sum of different food groups consumed over a period of 24 hours. It is a proxy indicator used to measures the quality and adequacy of a diet (WHO, 2010). WHO (2010) , FANTA,2006, FHI 360 & FAO (2016) recommended for adequate child diversity to receive adequate nutrients Kabeer (1999; 437) defined empowerment as the expansions in people’s abilities to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them’

Dependent variables

Independent - Women Empowerment Dimensions 13 Items were included in the data set on women empowerment. The plot also confirmed the presence of three factors before the break of the elbow. The extracted factors explained the combined variance of 22.4%, 14.1% and 11.1%. The loading for each variable are presented in the Table 1.

Data analysis Multi variate analysis on the association between women empowerment and child diet diversity and the seven food groups. Hierachical approach in fitting the data to the models – 2 models were built. 1. With siginficant covariates 2. Where covariates were held constant and the three test variables fitted.

Control variables Household wealth index , Number of children in the household, Maternal age, Maternal education, Spouse education, Spouse age , Child’s age, Child sex, Employment, Religion, Number of surviving children, geographical location of residence, husbands age, education status, employement status.

Children’s Sample description Age- 14.5 (SD=5.1) 51.1% Males 48.9% Female 80.7% breast feeding All children 5326

Results – women empowerment dimensions 61.6%; 95%CI [59.8-63.4] Women made decision on daily household purchases ie foods Decision making dimension – 4.2%; 95%CI [2.4-6.0] Asset Ownership by women alone was very low 71.7%;95%CI [69.9-73.5] did not support violence against women by their partners 38.9& ; 95%CI [26.0-29.6] supported violence against women by their partners Support for violence against women –

Results – Women Empowerment and child diet diversity The first model , Covariates (breast feeding status, working status, child’s age, women’s media exposure, woman’s age, child’s birth size) explained 15% variation in child diet diversity. None of the three empowerment dimensions were significant. all the three women’s empowerment dimensions were not predictors of child diet diversity. No association established between Women empowerment dimensions and child diet diversity Variables β Beta P -Value Women’s violence Support -0.20 -.014 0.668 Decision making .009 .006 0.850 Asset ownership .073 .050 0.157 Adjusted R Model 1& 2 .152 .0001

Women Empowerment Dimensions and the Seven food groups the child consumed the previous 24 hours Starchy foods - support for violence against women had a statistically significant negative association Decision making was significantly positively associated No association on all three women empowerment dimensions had any statistically significant relationship with other food groups. Asset empowerment dimensions of women’s empowerment had no association with any of the food groups. What does this mean

What we learn from the results Weak association observed between women empowerment an child diet diversity. However, when women are empowered to make decisions, chances are high feeding children high nutritional value foods. The need to include nutrition education in the empowerment programmes. Women who do not support violence are likely to feed their children on quality diets . Assets are an important resource to nutrition and most empowerment programmes focus on enhancing asset ownership.

Discussion A lack of association between women’s empowerment and child diet diversity women’s empowerment programs are more focused on improving women’s access to resources and opportunities and has limited focus on child nutrition (Leroy et al.) Low Diet Diversity ( 2.5, SD=1.4) No association with flesh foods generally low consumption of animal products among children in Zambia ie ( 4%, CSO, 2014) Traditions promote keeping animals than consumption as income back up. Women’s assets empowerment was also very low in our study which might have limited the analysis.

Discussion Cont Women who support violence have limited decision making power hence limit food choices for the children (Shroff et al. 2009). Violence against women limit their involvement in financial matters there by limit their participation in food choices (Sanders, 2015). If women support violence then they experience it, Children are exposed to it and develop stress which increase their intake of energy foods such as starchy foods (Wilson, 2014) resulting in other conditions limiting consumption of other foods(Weisz et al. 2011).

Discussion Cont The lack of association for other food groups; General high consumption of vegetables and legumes (Halimatou et al. and CSO et al). Generally, the child diversity is very low ( 2.5. SD=1.4) which limited the scope of analysis on individual foods Malapit et al. (2015 Limited items included in the data to assess women empowerment since it is an illusive indicator context specific which might mean that some items could have been missed in the data.

Limitations and strengths of the study Nationally representative permitting our findings to be generalized Results are comparable to other studies in other countries due to use of standard tools. Measurement of women’s empowerment is illusive. Limited items in the data to measure women empowerment use of standard 24-hour recall might have under report food consumption due to memory lapses or lack of knowledge of the foods consumed.

CONCLUSION No association observed Between child diet diversity and women empowerment A weak association was established between empowerment and feeding children on specific food groups. No Association seen between women’s asset empowerment and child diversity. Decision making empowerment dimension and support for violence against women were related to feeding children on dairy foods and starchy foods respectively out of the seven specific food groups. New insight is provided on the importance of social dimension, assets empowerment and decision making in promoting the feeding children.

Recommendations Strengthen Linkage Women empowerment programme ( assets Ownership) and nutrition. Strengthen social factors like norms and traditions in women empowerment programmes. Assets empowerment programmes needs to be enhanced to increase women’s ability to diversify the children’s diet. Strengthen collaboration with stakeholders in nutrition A formative research to provide in-depth information on women’s empowerment indicator items dietary patterns of children in the Zambian local context.

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