Child Health and Development

Child mortality and undernutrition have decreased dramatically in the past 20 years. However, despite this overall decline, child mortality and undernutrition remain unacceptably high, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where 1 out of 9 children die before age five. Hence, improving children’s health is one of the top priorities for governments in many countries highlighted by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular SDG 2 (zero Hunger) and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being).

The overall objective of this project is a better understanding of the determinants of child health in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and of within-country variations in child health, with a particular focus on countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

For this project, we use multiple large-scale household survey datasets across LMICs and over time, including detailed information on child health and on household and individual socio-economic and demographic characteristics as well as remote-sensed data such as information on rainfall and temperature to analyze socioeconomic, environmental, and spatial patterns associated with child health by applying quantitative estimation techniques.

Researchers: Kenneth Harttgen