Malnutrition in the OIC Member

Countries: A Trap for Poverty

COMCEC

Figure 14: Wasting and Poverty Headcount, Non-OIC Countries (zoom on low poverty, low

wasting countries)

Source: Authors' calculations based on theJoint Malnutrition Estimatesfrom UNICEF, WHOand the World Bank

(2016) and the World Bank Indicators (World Bank 2016). For each country, the most recentyearfor which

malnutrition and poverty data exist is used.

When the co-evolution of poverty and wasting is explored within countries through the means

of a fixed effects regression, however, there is a positive and statistically significant

relationship (at the 5% level). Each 10 percentage point decrease in poverty is associated with

a decrease of 0.7 percentage point in wasting. In non-OIC countries, the relationship is similar

significant statistically, but slightly weaker in absolute value (0.6 percentage point).

Stunting

A similar investigation with stunting reveals a strong and positive relationship between

chronic malnutrition and poverty rate

in OIC. A 10 percentage point increase in the

poverty headcount is associated with a 3.2 percentage point in stunting prevalence. The

relationship is statistically significant at the 1% level.

Despite this strong relationship, some countries appear to be outliers i

akistan,

Indonesia, Bangladesh and Cote d'Ivoire, for instance, experience much higher rates of stunting

than would be expected given their levels of poverty. In contrast, other countries have a lower