Gender influences on child survival, health and nutrition: a ... - Unicef
Gender influences on child survival, health and nutrition: a ... - Unicef
Gender influences on child survival, health and nutrition: a ... - Unicef
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<str<strong>on</strong>g>Gender</str<strong>on</strong>g> Influences On Child Survival, Health And Nutriti<strong>on</strong>: A Narrative Review<br />
This secti<strong>on</strong> has dem<strong>on</strong>strated that there are a number of ways in which women’s bargaining<br />
power (as measured through different variables) is linked to <strong>child</strong>ren’s <strong>survival</strong>, <strong>health</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
nutriti<strong>on</strong> outcomes:<br />
‣ There is evidence from countries across three regi<strong>on</strong>s (South Asia, Sub Saharan Africa <strong>and</strong><br />
Latin America <strong>and</strong> the Caribbean) that <strong>child</strong>ren’s nutriti<strong>on</strong>al status improves when women<br />
have greater decisi<strong>on</strong>-making power within the household although there are variati<strong>on</strong>s by<br />
regi<strong>on</strong>:<br />
o Improvements in women’s decisi<strong>on</strong>-making power in the household had the<br />
str<strong>on</strong>gest effect <strong>on</strong> <strong>child</strong> nutriti<strong>on</strong> status in South Asia;<br />
o The effect was less str<strong>on</strong>g, though still significant for Sub Saharan Africa;<br />
o In Latin America <strong>and</strong> the Caribbean there was <strong>on</strong>ly a positive effect <strong>on</strong> <strong>child</strong>ren’s<br />
short-term nutriti<strong>on</strong> status effect <strong>and</strong> <strong>on</strong>ly in households where women’s relative<br />
decisi<strong>on</strong>-making power is very low.<br />
‣ These improvements in women’s status appear to have a str<strong>on</strong>ger effect <strong>on</strong> <strong>child</strong> nutriti<strong>on</strong>al<br />
outcomes am<strong>on</strong>g poorer households;<br />
‣ The pathways to these outcomes include improvements in women’s own <strong>health</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
nutriti<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> improvements in caring practices such as prenatal <strong>and</strong> birthing care for<br />
women, in feeding practices, treatment of <strong>child</strong> illness <strong>and</strong> immunizati<strong>on</strong>;<br />
‣ Breastfeeding is the <strong>on</strong>ly care practice which may become compromised by improvements<br />
in women’s status. The reas<strong>on</strong>s for this are as yet unknown but may be linked to women’s<br />
exposure to marketing <strong>and</strong> promoti<strong>on</strong> of breastmilk substitutes, including by <strong>health</strong><br />
professi<strong>on</strong>als, , to a lack of knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding, a shift in social<br />
norms around infant feeding accompanying ec<strong>on</strong>omic development, urbanizati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> other<br />
social factors, or to inflexibility in paid work c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s.<br />
‣ Studies also show correlati<strong>on</strong>s between indicators of women’s aut<strong>on</strong>omy <strong>and</strong> <strong>child</strong> <strong>health</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> nutriti<strong>on</strong> outcomes, including increased maternal age, educati<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> residence in a<br />
female headed household, women’s lifetime exposure to employment <strong>and</strong> whether they are<br />
part of a family structure amenable to empowerment <strong>and</strong> finally their able to make<br />
decisi<strong>on</strong>s to travel outside the home to pay visits to <strong>health</strong> instituti<strong>on</strong>s <strong>and</strong> to make<br />
decisi<strong>on</strong>s about household purchases.<br />
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