Breaking the Cycle: The Impact of Energy Poverty on Child Undernutrition in Ghana

Children are considered to be particularly vulnerable to energy poverty in developing countries; however, there has been little empirical analysis on how energy poverty affects child nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using data from the 2022 Ghana Demographic Health Survey, the study estimated energy poverty level and determined its effect on under-five child undernutrition in Ghana. By applying the two-stage-least-squares (2SLS) estimation method to address the endogeneity problem, we found that energy poverty is a significant driver of, and positively correlated with, the prevalence of child undernutrition as a multidimensional variable of stunting, wasting, and underweight. Our results also reveal that household wealth, women's decision making power and access to a refrigerator are key channels through which energy poverty influences child undernutrition. Thus, policymakers need to focus on ensuring modern energy and consider renewable energy to improve the quality of the diet available to children.