Bio:

Dr. Kafui Adjaye-Gbewonyo is a social epidemiologist who received her Doctor of Science in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research interests are in the social determinants of health, population health, and quantitative research methods. She is particularly interested in measuring the effects of societal factors, macroeconomics, and policy on health in African countries. 

Project summary:

Progress to reduce undernutrition in African countries over the last few decades has been slower than anticipated. This study combines the World Bank’s Updated National and Global Estimates of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2011, with 73 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 16 African countries between 1983 and 2010, and uses an innovative measure, the nominal rate of assistance (NRA) to tradable agriculture (NRAag_trad), to attempt to isolate the effects of agricultural trade policies from secular trends and other policies. Unlike previous research on trade liberalization and nutrition, this study allows for the examination of potential differential effects of agricultural policies on nutritional outcomes for different segments of the population. The results of this study will supplement the literature on the effects of agricultural trade policies on nutrition and well-being in Africa, inform agricultural policies that can advance public health, and utilize an innovative measure for examining the impacts of trade policy on health.

Articles:

Agricultural trade policies and child nutrition in low- and middle-income countries: a cross-national analysis