‘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 2015Ginny Morrow

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)

AGES: 1 5 8 12 15

YOU

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Following 2,000 children

OLD

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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

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

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.

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

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)

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”

… 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 be on what to eat and drink.

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”

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...”

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.’

.. 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.

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.

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...

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

REFERENCESAbebe 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.