Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
3 . CASE STUDIES
Methodological Approach
To understand better how malnutrition and poverty are related, and how policy can tackle
these potential links, the analysis now turns to five detailed case studies. The selected
countries are Senegal, Egypt, Indonesia, Tajikistan and Bangladesh. Each case study features a
brief account of the state and trend of malnutrition; a quantitative analysis of poverty and
malnutrition, a quantitative analysis of the relationships between maternal and child
malnutrition; and a qualitative analysis of these relationships as well as of the policy landscape
to fight malnutrition based on stakeholders' interviews and examination of secondary data and
literature.
Inclusion Criteria
The case studies have been chosen to reflect (i) the geographic distribution of OIC countries in
the world, (ii) the various patterns of malnutrition found in OIC countries (especially in terms
of under- and over-nutrition) and (iii) different trends in malnutrition rates (with some
countries more successful than others in recent years). Additionally, countries with good
malnutrition data (i.e. countries for which multiple recent surveys with anthropometric data
are available), and which are members of the Scale-Up Nutrition (to facilitate contacts with
local stakeholders), were prioritised. By doing so, selected countries are likely to have at least
nominally expressed a political will to tackle malnutrition, allowing the subsequent analysis to
focus on the means to do so most effectively. The only country which is not a SUNmember is
Egypt, which was nevertheless chosen due to its importance within the OIC and to the paucity
of Arab countries with both SUNmembership and good malnutrition data.
Hata! Başvuru kaynağı bulunamadı. below summarises the key selection criteria in matrix
orm. It shows that all countries, bar Bangladesh, have significant under- and over-nutrition
problems, and that the recent records in terms of under- and over-nutrition are mixed across
the sample.
Table 4: Selection Criteria Matrix
Countries Senegal Bangladesh Egypt Indonesia Tajikistan
Criteria
Child Over- and
undernutrition X X X x
Lack of progress on
undernutrition X X
Lack of progress on
overnutrition X X X
SUNmember X X X X
Good data X X X X X
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