Women’s involvement in intra-household decision-making and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia

• Published in: World development 2024-06, Vol.178, p.106572, Article 106572
• Main Authors: Abdurazzakova, Dilnovoz, Kosec, Katrina, Parpiev, Ziyodullo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Central Asia; Infant and young child feeding; Women’s empowerment
• ISSN: 0305-750X; 1873-5991
• DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106572

•We study the relationship between women’s empowerment and adherence to recommended infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia.•We simultaneously analyze three dimensions of empowerment: attitude toward domestic violence, social independence and decision-making power.•Woman’s decision-making power—a measure of her instrumental agency—predicts greater adherence to recommended IYCF practices.•A woman’s attitude toward domestic violence and social independence are not consistent predictors of adherence to recommended IYCF practices.•Associations between decision-making power and IYCF practices vary little with child gender, cohabitation with one’s mother-in-law, or wealth. This paper examines the relationship between women’s empowerment and infant and young child feeding practices in Central Asia using Demographic and Health Survey datasets collected during 1995–2017. We employ a measure of women’s empowerment with three dimensions that is available for many recent surveys as well as a measure of decision-making power over use of one’s own income present for income-earning mothers in all surveys. We identify a positive association between a woman’s decision-making power—a measure of her instrumental agency—and adherence to World Health Organization–recommended feeding practices. We find little significant association between a woman’s attitude toward domestic violence, or her degree of social independence, and adherence to recommended feeding practices. Our results further show that the association between women’s decision-making power and feeding practices varies little with child gender, whether or not she cohabitates with her mother-in-law, or household wealth. We thus provide evidence from Central Asia that policies and programs intended to empower women can improve child feeding practices, with similar benefits across a variety of household types.