Social Capital and Malnutrition: A Case Study in Peru

Despite modern innovations in food fortification and nutrition delivery, childhood malnutrition is still a prevalent symptom of global poverty. In developing nations, one in five children is underweight and poor nutrition factors into over a third of child’s deaths. These troubling statistics challenge development practitioners to investigate effective measures to combat child malnutrition.

Existing research demonstrates that more educated women have better nourished children, suggesting that mothers’ human capital could play a key role in reducing child malnutrition. In the absence human capital, social capital via access to social networks may serve as a substitute and positively influence childhood development. In a recent World Bank working paper, “United We Stand Divided We Fall: Maternal Social Participation and Children’s Nutritional Status in Peru,” Marta Favara examines the relationship between social capital and malnutrition. She finds that, at least in the short term, women’s social capital may lead to better nutritional outcomes for their children.

Favara defines social capital as participation in community organizations, such as religious groups, trade unions, savings cooperatives, or women’s groups. She uses longitudinal data from the Peruvian sample of the University of Oxford’s Young Lives study to measure the impact of such capital. Researchers in the study conducted household surveys of 2,000 mothers in 82 rural and urban communities in 2002 and 2006, collecting information about their families’ socio-economic status, children’s health, and personal social capital. Favara examines the relationship between mothers’ social capital, as indicated by these data, and their children’s nutritional status at one and five years of age.

The author observes a positive association, consistent with existing research, between mothers’ human capital and children’s nutritional outcomes. Notably, among women with little to no formal education, Favara also finds a positive association between mothers’ social capital and one-year-olds’ nutrition status. Using height-for-age as a metric of malnutrition, she reports that at one years old a “child whose mother has no formal education but is a member of at least one community organization is 1.1 centimeters taller than a child whose mother has the same educational level, but does not participate in any community groups.” She explains that “this effect is quite sizable considering that it is equivalent to the effect of maternal education, what has been proved to be one of the main child development determinates.”

The author’s findings, however, are not consistent across age cohorts: she finds no association between mothers’ social capital and children’s nutritional status at five years old, suggesting that women’s community participation may only affect their children’s nutrition during infancy. Favara acknowledges that it is difficult to determine the pathways through which social capital affects childhood nutrition. She also points out that social participation is common in Peruvian society, raising the question of whether her findings would be applicable in other developing nations.

Still, Favara’s conclusions have important implications for development practitioners. As the international community strives to reduce childhood malnutrition, promoting women’s community engagement may be an effective grassroots approach to improving children’s nutritional outcomes in the developing world.

Feature Photo: cc/Oxfam International