I cannot attend class properly if I am hungry....’ : food and children’s well-being in rural Ethiopia Wellbeing and the Life Course: Intercultural and Intergenerational Perspectives Launch of Centre for Innovation and Research in Wellbeing University of Sussex 24th-25th September 2015 Virginia Morrow

1. ‘I cannot attend class properly if I am
hungry....’ : food and children’s well-
being in rural Ethiopia
Wellbeing and the Life Course:
Intercultural and Intergenerational Perspectives
Launch of Centre for Innovation and Research in Wellbeing
University of Sussex
24th
-25th
September 2015
Ginny Morrow

2. YOUNG LIVES
• Multi-disciplinary study that aims to:
- improve understanding of childhood poverty
- provide evidence to improve policies & practice
• Following nearly 12,000 children in 4 countries: Ethiopia;
India (Andhra Pradesh & Telangana), Peru and Vietnam, over
15 years
• Now covers 11-year period: first data collected in 2002, with
4 survey rounds.
• Two age cohorts in each country:
- 2,000 children born in 2000-01 (Younger Cohort)
- 1,000 children born in 1994-95 (Older Cohort)
• Pro-poor sample: 20 sites in each country, reflecting country
diversity (rural-urban, diverse livelihoods, ethnicity)

3. AGES: 1 5 8 12 15
YOUNGERCOHORT
Following 2,000 children
OLDERCOHORT
Following 1,000 children
AGES: 8 12 15 19 22
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5
2002 2006 2009 2013 2016
VISUALISING THIS
Same age children at
different time points
Qualitative nested sample
1 2 3 4
Linked
school surveys

4. Qualitative research:
Longitudinal qualitative data from a nested sample of both
cohorts – 50 in each country
Four rounds of data have been collected (2007, 2008, 2011,
2014)
Methods include: interviews + children, caregivers,
community members; group discussions, group activities,
data gathered using creative methods
Focus on children’s daily lives – well-being, transitions,
experiences of services

5. Ethiopia 2013 (R4) survey:
• Some improvement in stunting levels
• Some improvements in dietary diversity
(average number of groups of food) for
children
• By 2013, on average four of seven food
groups accessed.
• Increase in children consuming fruit & veg
• Food insecurity – mixed trends – declined
in SNNPR & Tigray, increased in Addis
Ababa, Amhara & Oromia.

6. How does hunger affect children?
• Data from discussions about well-being,
services, change in communities since
previous visit (food price rises), and
poverty (i.e. food/nutrition not the focus)
• 11 cases Qual 3 going back to Qual 1
• Quantity and quality of food, linkages to
economic ‘shocks’ – illness, death,
drought etc
• Gendered dimensions
• Links to social protection schemes PSNP

7. PSNP
• Productive Safety Net Programme -2005
• To ensure food security for poor
households
• Public Work: adult able-bodied work in
community in exchange for cash or food
transfers
• Direct Support: for households ‘without
labour’ mainly elderly and disabled
• Gender-sensitive (but not child-sensitive)

8. Kassaye, boy, Tach-Meret
• Middle quintile – household not eligible for
PSNP
• Prioritised attending school over herding/
farming
• Entrepreneurial in ways to improve family
livelihood - buying chickens, selling eggs
• Able to pay for expenses for school
materials
• “If I get enough to eat, I can attend classes
properly and I can help them [parents]
doing different activities”

9. … continued
• You know, that we are led by God that
unless He gives us enough rain, no one in
the community can survive. Thus, as He
has given us enough rain ... everybody
was happy and we have been eating
potatoes.
• I am getting enough food, as much as I
want. ... if I get good food and drink, I will
do better in my school. I perform well in my
classes. But if I feel hungry, I can’t attend
classes well because my concentration will

10. Defar
• Poor household, receiving PSNP
• Father chronically ill
• In 2007, a child with a good life is “one who
wears and eats whatever he likes”
• Started school reluctantly age 12 “my mother
and father are getting old and nobody helps
them with work except me”
• Links between good health and nutrition
• By 2011, he had left school: “I started working
because I was hungry”

11. Sefinesh, girl, Leki
• Raised by her grandparents
• Household received PSNP support
• Mother migrated for work to Addis Ababa
and Gulf, sends money
• Still at school, and by 2011 had (proudly)
rejected several marriage proposals
• “If we want to eat teff... we can get it... If
we have no food, my grandmother goes to
her family in Addis Ababa and she brings
money...”

12. Haymanot, girl, Zeytuni
• 2007: cared for her mother who was ill
• 2008: she and her sister working in PSNP work
• Complained about hard physical work
• She was despondent and worried about food
• One meal a day:
• …we don’t have much food at home and we
have to eat accordingly... [in the past] we had
enough food… we used to eat bread and tea as
breakfast, injera with wot as lunch, supper after
school and then dinner.’

13. .. Continued
• By 2011, Haymanot was married
• “I am happy about my marriage because it was
arranged by my family and I stopped doing paid
work since marriage”
• Life was better because ‘we have enough farm
products’
• By 2014, had a baby, was divorced
• She had returned to live with her mother
• And planned to work, and raise her child.

14. Discussion
• Concerns about food are so dominant, and food
security so volatile, that trajectories – whether to
stay at school, work, marry – are influenced by
whether there is enough to eat.
• Gender matters – restrictions on girls’ mobility
• PSNP is supportive but has unintended
consequences
• Hunger is not only a political economy question;
it also affects body, mind and social relations.

15. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & THANK YOU
• Young Lives children, parents/caregivers as well as
community leaders, teachers, health workers and
others in communities.
• Fieldworkers, data-managers, survey enumerators
and supervisors, principal investigators and country
directors in each country
• Oxford team, especially Ina Zharkevich, who
assisted with data analysis
• Funders: DFID, DGIS, IrishAid, Oak Foundation,
Bernard Van Leer Foundation.
Thanks to...

16. FINDING OUT MORE…
www.younglives.org.uk
• Methods, ethics and research papers
• datasets (UK Data Archive)
• publications
• child profiles and photos
• e-newsletter
FINDING OUT MORE

17. REFERENCES
Abebe T and Kjørholt, A-T. (eds) (2013) Childhood and local knowledge in Ethiopia. Livelihoods,
rights and intergenerational relationships. Akademik Forlag, Trondheim
Bourdillon, M., and Boyden, J. (eds) (2014) Growing up in poverty. Palgrave.
Crivello, G., Morrow, V., Wilson, E. (2013) Young Lives Longitudinal Qualitative Research: a
guide for researchers. Young Lives Technical Note 26, Young Lives, Oxford.
www.younglives.org.uk
Morrow , V., and Crivello, G. (2015) What is the value of qualitative longitudinal research with
children and young people for international development? Int Jnl Social Research Methodology
18, 3, 267-280
Tafere, Y., and Woldehanna, T. (2012) Beyond food security: transforming the productive safety
net programme in Ethiopia for the well-being of children. Young Lives Working Paper 83.