Stronger Food and Nutrition Security Impacts from More Intense Project Participation: Evidence from a Multi-Country Intervention Program

Rigorous experiments show that nutrition-sensitive intervention programs can contribute to improved food and nutrition security (FNS) of rural households in low-and middle-income countries. Targeted individuals may, however, choose to engage with the intervention package at different intensities. It...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of development studies 2023-06, Vol.59 (6), p.873-893
Main Authors: Steinke, Jonathan, Habtemariam, Lemlem Teklegiorgis, Kubitza, Christoph, Maczek, Markolf, Altincicek, Boran, Sieber, Stefan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beneficiaries
development interventions
Diet
Food
food security
Households
Intensive treatment
Intervention
Low income groups
Mothers
Nutrition
Opportunity costs
Participation
probit model
Propensity
propensity score matching
Security
Stakeholders
Women
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Summary:Rigorous experiments show that nutrition-sensitive intervention programs can contribute to improved food and nutrition security (FNS) of rural households in low-and middle-income countries. Targeted individuals may, however, choose to engage with the intervention package at different intensities. It is yet unclear to what extent individual participation in more interventions influences FNS outcomes. Positive links would justify efforts by development stakeholders to diversify intervention packages and enable, encourage, or incentivize beneficiaries to participate in many different interventions. Using cross-sectional data from 2733 households across seven countries, we first estimate effects of a multi-sectoral intervention program using probit regressions, propensity score matching, and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment. Over the course of the three-year program, beneficiaries joined 8.3 interventions, on average. We find that targeted households were 6-9 percent more likely to be food secure, and targeted women and children were 15-17 percent more likely to consume a nutrient-adequate diet. Our estimates show that, across three indicators of FNS, each additional intervention increased the probability of achieving positive outcomes by about 1 percent. We conclude that investments in diversified intervention programs can be justified by stronger FNS benefits. Development stakeholders could enable strong individual participation by reducing transaction and opportunity costs of participation.
ISSN:0022-0388
1743-9140
DOI:10.1080/00220388.2023.2182684