What Role Does Gender Play in Early Life Nutrition During the 1994 Rwanda Genocide?

• In Event: 3167 - Section on Sociology of Development Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 2. Human Development, Fertility, and Health in Lower to Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

Analyzing the 1992 and 2000 Rwanda Demographic and Health Surveys and employing the difference-in-differences method, this research examines whether the interaction of social disruption caused by the 1994 Rwanda genocide with gender, particularly being a boy, increases early childhood malnutrition as measured by weight-for-height z-scores, wasting. It also ascertains whether the relationship differs by household income. The gender explanation for differences in children’s nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, which states a disadvantage for the infant boy, along with the poverty and war justifications are employed as theoretical frameworks. Findings show that the interaction of being exposed to the 1994 genocide and being male decreases the probability of wasting, particularly in economically well-off households. This suggests that, in the presence of the 1994 genocide, the infant boy is nutritional advantaged in the short-term. The finding contradicts the argument in the gender explanation that states a nutritional disadvantage for the infant boy in all sub-Saharan African countries without consideration for the presence of war and armed conflict. Future policies should offer medical, nutrition, sanitation, and other aid, which are present during wars and conflicts to all children zero to five regardless during war time or not, and also calls for a rise in income for poor households.

Authors

• Aramide Kazeem, University of West Georgia

• John Musalia, Western Kentucky University