Gender-Differentiated Nutritional Investment
RCTReview
In developing nations, undernourished young girls receive fewer household nutritional and health resources than boys due to perceived lower future economic returns for females.
Picture this
Think of a farmer with limited grain who feeds his working oxen more than his smaller pets because the oxen pull the plow. Once the farmer realizes the smaller animals can also perform high-value work, he immediately increases their daily food rations so they grow healthier and stronger.
What the evidence says
Female BMI increased significantly in treatment villages, closing 30 to 40 percent of the BMI gap relative to Delhi's wealthiest residents, while boys experienced zero change in BMI or nutritional outcomes.
- Who was studied
- Random sample of 3,200 households across 160 rural villages in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, India; school-aged children tracked over 3 years.
- How
- Cluster RCT measuring physical height and weight to calculate body mass index (BMI) changes in school-aged children following female job recruitment awareness sessions.
What to do
Target health and nutritional support programs alongside female economic opportunity drives to ensure households equalize intra-household caloric allocation between boys and girls.
From the source
"The treatment's increase in BMI for girls was large, closing about 30-40 percent of the BMI gap between the girls in the sample and the wealthiest residents of Delhi. No change was found in either of these outcomes (school enrollment and BMI) for school-age boys in treatment villages."
Improving_Labor_Market_Opportunities_to_Increase_Womens_Employment.pdf