This paper was presented on the 15th South Asian Economics Students' Meet, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Determinants of Household food poverty among children in Bangladesh: Evidence from Household Income & Expenditure Survey

1. WELCOME

2. DETERMINANTS OF HOUSEHOLD
FOOD SECURITY AMONG CHILDREN
IN BANGLADESH
:Evidence from Household Income and Expenditure
Survey
FARHIN ISLAM
Department of Economics
University of Dhaka
Bangladesh

3. FOOD SECURITY
According to the WFP
Food Security exists when all people, at all times,
have physical and economic access to sufficient,
safe and nutritious foods to meet their dietary needs
and preferences for a healthy and active life.

4. FOOD POVERTY (DCI METHOD)
According to the HIES,
A person whose daily calorie intake is lower
than 2122 K.cal is considered in the category
of absolute poverty.

5. 3 PILLARS OF FOOD SECURITY
Availability
UtilizationAccess
USAID,1996

6. Why Children Food Security is so Important?
United Nations- Department of Economic & Social Affairs
Male - Female
Population (million)
Demographic Dividend in Bangladesh

7. Benefit of
Demographic Dividend
Healthy & Productive
Labor Force
Children Food Security

8. UNDERNOURISHMENT
Bangladesh Demographic & Health Survey (2017)
Height for Age Weight for Height Weight for Age
Stunting
Stunted Not stunted
Wasting
Wasted Not wasted
Underweight
Underweight Not underweight
31% 22% 8%
Percentage of children under 5 based on
WHO Growth Standard 2006

10.  Identifying the determinants of household
food security among children
 Suggesting some policies to improve
children food security condition in
Bangladesh
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

11. LITERATURE
REVIEW
• Calorie requirement dimension.
• Household characteristics
• Children Food Security (HH level)
• Food security in all Household
• Credit access
• Farm size
• Household size
• Age and Sex of Household Head
• Agricultural Household
• Number of children
• Multidimensional Food Security Index
• Education of Household Head
Faridi &
Wadood (2010)
Gundersen
(2013)
Magana-Lemus
et al. (2013)
Abafita & Kim
(2014)
Mensah et al.
(2013)

12. • Data Source: Household Income and
Expenditure Survey
• Contains information about:
 Expenditure
 Consumption
 Savings
 Housing condition
 Education & Employment
DESCRIPTION OF DATA:

13. • Among the total of 12,240
households, 9,744 households
consist children aged 0 to 15.
• If the household have children,
it can be taken to analyze
children food security, because
a food secure household
indicates that all the members
including its children are food
secure.
DESCRIPTION OF DATA:
12,240
9,744
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
Total household Consisting children

14. DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES:
Based on past
literatures and priori
expectations
Based on household
information

15. METHODOLOGY
Probit Model:
Binary Dependent Variable: Food Security (0 if
insecure, 1 if secure)
β’s are parameters
X’s are independent variables

16. METHODOLOGY
 Household per capita daily expenditure on food
 Education of household head dummy (3 category)
 No/primary education
 Secondary education
 Tertiary education
 Household head economic activity (1 if in
agriculture sector, 0 if otherwise)
 Age of household head
Independent Variables:

17. METHODOLOGY
Independent Variables:
 Sex of household head (0 if male, 1 if female)
 Holding of cultivable land
 Access to credit (1 if any member using any micro
credit, 0 if not)
 Access to safety net (1 if any member receiving, 0 if
not)
 Number of children aged 0 to 15
 Number of economically active family members
aged between 16 to 64 years.

18. METHODOLOGY
Marginal effect:
 Probit model: slope coefficients do not give us the
rate of change of probability for a unit change in the
regressors.
 Marginal effects: give us the instantaneous effect of
regressors on the probability.

19. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
Dependent variable: Household children food security
48.2351.77
Households consisting children
Food secure Food insecure

20. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
42
42.5
43
43.5
44
44.5
45
45.5
Insecure Secure
Age of HHH
0.119
0.12
0.121
0.122
0.123
0.124
0.125
0.126
Insecure Secure
Female Headed HH
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
Insecure Secure
HHH in Agriculture (%)
0.37
0.38
0.39
0.4
0.41
0.42
0.43
0.44
Insecure Secure
Access to Microcredit

21. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Insecure Secure
Cultivable Land Holding
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
Insecure Secure
Expenditure on Food
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
No/Primary Secondary Tertiary
Education of HHH
Insecure Secure

22. ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS
Variables Marginal effect
Per capita expenditure on food 0.0003**
(6.01e-06)
Number of children (aged 0 to 15) -0.039**
(0.006)
Number of active family member
(aged 16 to 64)
-0.025**
(0.005)
Economic activity of household head 0.239**
(0.013)
Age of household head 0.003**
(0.0005)
Sex of household head -0.011
(0.019)

23. ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS
Variables Marginal effect
Secondary education of Household
head
0.168**
(0.015)
Tertiary education of Household head 0.379**
(0.024)
Cultivable land holding 0.0002**
(0.00005)
Access to micro credit 0.05**
(0.012)
Access to safety net 0.061**
(0.014)

24. • Accessibility of safety net and micro credits
should be extended.
• Family planning initiatives may have great
impact on reducing child food insecurity.
• Agriculture sector occupations should be
made more attractive.
• Education should be promoted.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS:

25. • Modern and integrated use of seeds and
fertilizers, improved infrastructural support
should be introduced to the farmers.
• Training of farmers is needed to cope with the
changing situation.
• Improvement in income earning opportunities
should be made so that households can
increase their expenditure on food.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS:

26. • Data taken from one country (Bangladesh).
• Food security measured in calorie requirement
dimension only. Other possible dimensions
are: Dietary Diversity, Vulnerability to food
deprivation in future etc.
• Individual information missing.
LIMITATIONS:

28. Thank You