Evaluating food transfers in Botswana using multiple matching methods

ABSTRACT

Data from a household survey in Botswana were analysed to assess the effectiveness of food transfers. Food transfers have been contentious, and much assessment has focused on market participation while overlooking direct impacts on hunger. This paper quantitatively assesses food transfers while controlling for selection bias. Responses to food insecurity questions and Body Mass Index of the head of household were tested for association with socioeconomic variables using logistic and ordinal regression. Respondents who were female (p < .0001), lived outside major cities and towns (p = .0002), lived in larger households (p < .0001), or had never received formal education (p < .0001) were more likely to report hunger and be underweight. After controlling for selection bias using several Propensity Score and Exact Matching methods, we showed that food transfers reduced the proportion of respondents reporting hunger (p = .017 with Optimal 1:2 matching). This demonstrates that food transfers targeted the hungry and alleviated household food insecurity.

KEYWORDS:

• Food transfers
• Botswana
• propensity score matching
• coarsened exact matching

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the UQ Advantage Office. We also acknowledge the provision of data from the Botswana Core Welfare Indicators Survey through Statistics Botswana and the efforts made by interviewers and other personnel to produce this data. The authors also wish to thank Dr Peter J. Baker, from the School of Public Health, UQ for his statistical advice on matching methods.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We define household food insecurity as inadequate access to safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life (Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1996; Pinstrup-Andersen, 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a Research Scholarship at the University of Queensland, of which the authors are alumni.