Does Women’s Political Empowerment Influence Child Undernourishment in Developing Countries?

This article analyses the effect of women's political empowerment on child undernourishment for a sample of 87 developing countries over the period 2001–2021. We provide evidence through various empirical approaches that women's political empowerment reduces undernourishment. Examination of transmission channels indicates that women's political empowerment improves nutrition through its effects on public health spending, public education spending and governance. This result remains robust when we: (i) decompose the women's political empowerment index; (ii) control for income level, natural resource dependency, civil and political liberties, and religious predominance; and (iii) control for endogeneity using methods with external instrumental variables, namely two-stage least squares (2SLS) and Lewbel's ordinary least squares method. This article contributes to the literature by demonstrating the fundamental role of women’s political empowerment in achieving sustainable development goals, in particular improving the food and nutritional status of children.