Optimising health with gender equity: a missing piece in nutrition programme planning (360G-Wellcome-210894_Z_18_Z)

The nutritional status of populations is a marker of societal development and realisation of human rights. Worldwide, pervasive gender inequity in nutritional outcomes reflects structural disparities in the rights, freedoms, and welfare of men and women. My doctoral research in Nepal found that women are strongly discriminated against in the intra-household allocation of foods, especially during pregnancy. Yet, the health and economic implications of this are unknown. This project aims to estimate the health, mortality, and economic costs of gender-based dietary inequity, and identify policy-amenable determinants of intra-household food allocation. I will collate 11 datasets from eight low- and middle-income countries (n=27,660 households). To estimate health impacts of inequity, I will re-allocate foods under different ‘equity’ scenarios and predict the health and mortality outcomes from these scenarios. I will then use microeconomic models to predict household-level economic costs of inequity, and the ‘PROFILES’ tool to estimate population-level economic costs of equity. A multi-level determinants analysis will identify factors that affect intra-household inequity. This will be the first analysis to address health, mortality, and economic effects of diet-based gender inequity, and will provide critical information to transform national and international policy and programmes so they can protect women and save lives.