ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2019
Impact of Feed the Future initiative on nutrition in children aged less than 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa: difference-in-differences analysis.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions on Food Security and Water Uses for Improving Nutritional Status of Pregnant Women and Children Younger Than Five Years in Low-Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Aid withdrawal: an event study of mortality, vaccine coverage and DALY following transitioning from Gavi support.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Association between antenatal care visits and under-five mortality: An Analysis of the Pakistan demographic and health surveys.PloS one · 2025Article
- Malnutrition in infants aged 6-23 months in China's poorest rural counties from 2016 to 2021: cross sectional study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- The impact of antenatal care on under-five mortality in Ethiopia: a difference-in-differences analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of Penalties for Lockdown Violations During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany.American journal of public health · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the impact of the US government's Feed the Future initiative on nutrition outcomes in children younger than 5 years in sub-Saharan Africa.
designDifference-in-differences quasi-experimental approach.
settingHouseholds in 33 low and lower middle income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. POPULATION: 883 309 children aged less than 5 years with weight, height, and age recorded in 118 surveys conducted in 33 countries between 2000 and 2017: 388 052 children were from Feed the Future countries and 495 257 were from non-Feed the Future countries.
main outcome measuresA difference-in-differences approach was used to compare outcomes among children in intervention countries after implementation of the initiative with children before its introduction and children in non-intervention countries, controlling for relevant covariates, time invariant national differences, and time trends. The primary outcome was stunting (height for age >2 standard deviations below a reference median), a key indicator of undernutrition in children. Secondary outcomes were wasting (low weight for height) and underweight (low weight for age).
resultsAcross all years and countries, 38.3% of children in the study sample were stunted, 8.9% showed wasting, and 21.3% were underweight. In the first six years of Feed the Future's implementation, children in 12 countries with the initiative exhibited a 3.9 percentage point (95% confidence interval 2.4 to 5.5) greater decline in stunting, a 1.1 percentage point (0.1 to 2.1) greater decline in wasting, and a 2.8 percentage point (1.6 to 4.0) greater decline in underweight levels compared with children in 21 countries without the initiative and compared with trends in undernutrition before Feed the Future was launched. These decreases translate to around two million fewer stunted and underweight children aged less than 5 years and around a half million fewer children with wasting. For context, about 22 million children were stunted, 11 million children were underweight, and four million children were wasted in the Feed the Future countries at baseline.
conclusionsFeed the Future's activities were closely linked to notable improvements in stunting and underweight levels and moderate improvements in wasting in children younger than 5 years. These findings highlight the effectiveness of this large, country tailored initiative focused on agriculture and food security and have important implications for the future of this and other nutrition interventions worldwide.
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