Women’s empowerment and child nutritional outcomes in rural Burkina Faso

Across developing countries, women play an important role both as producers of major food crops and in improving household nutrition. This research aims to assess the effect of improving women’s empowerment on the nutritional status of children in rural Burkina Faso. Based on data from the country’s first Living Standards Measurement Survey, this paper uses variables such as income control, access to land, autonomy in production decisions, access to credit, and social group membership to compute a composite index of women’s empowerment. The results revealed a low baseline level of women’s empowerment in rural areas, but empowerment was positively correlated with children’s nutritional outcomes. The study suggests that improving women’s empowerment will translate into significant gains in children’s nutritional outcomes in rural households.