Working Paper 30 provides an updated analysis of the dietary patterns of Malawian households and their consumption of select nutrients – calories, protein, iron, vitamin A, zinc, and folate – using data from the third (2010/11) and fourth (2016/17) rounds of the Malawi Integrated Household Survey (IHS). Changes in food and nutrient consumption patterns between the two survey periods are examined across household wealth categories and across regions.
The authors found that dietary diversity and patterns of food and nutrient consumption differ significantly between rural and urban areas. Whereas urban households largely saw slightly increased or stable nutrient consumption between 2010/11 and 2016/17, most households in rural areas saw declines over this period. The authors also document small shifts in the relative amounts of foods consumed over this six-year period in both rural and urban households, with increased consumption of fish and pulses, legumes, and nuts, and decreases in meat, fruit, dairy, and root and tuber consumption. The contribution of animal-source foods as a share of total protein consumption remains low at between 10 and 20 percent, depending on the region, with the overall share of protein from animal-source foods falling slightly between the two surveys.
Authors: Rachel Gilbert, Todd Benson, and Olivier Ecker, December 2019/ revised July 2020.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133522
The working paper is available here.
Citation:
Gilbert, Rachel; Benson, Todd; and Ecker, Olivier. 2019. Are Malawian Diets Changing? An assessment of nutrient consumption and dietary patterns using household-level evidence from 2010/11 and 2016/17. MaSSP Working Paper 30. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Note (July 2020)
Revisions were made to the Working Paper, published in December 2019, to correct inconsistencies found in the original calculation of point estimates in Tables 7, 8, and 12 and in the computation of the statistical significance of differences between the point estimates for 2010/11 and 2016/17 in Tables 5 and 11. An error in the column labels for Table 4 was also corrected.
