A vision of achieving food security: does physical infrastructure matter? A Sub-Saharan African perspective

Figures & data

Table 1. Variable description, measurement, theoretical expectation and data sources.

Variable	Description and measurement	Expected sign	Data source
FS	Food security (measured by the aggregate of food availability, accessibility, stability and utilisation index		https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FS
AGIF	Aggregate infrastructure (measured by African Infrastructure Development index	+	https://infrastructureafrica.opendataforafrica.org/pbuerhd/africa-infrastructure-development-index-aidi-
Transport	Transport infrastructure index	+
Electricity	Electricity infrastructure index
ICT	Internet and Communication Technology Infrastructure Index
WSS	Water supply and sanitation index
Inflation	Inflationary rate, annual %	_	https://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/
Population growth	Population growth, annual %	±	https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
Merchandise trade	Export–imports, % of GDP	+
Political stability	Perceptions of tendency of political instability and violence, including terrorism	+

Source: Authors’ compilation.

Table 2. Descriptive summary statistics.

Variable	Mean	Std. dev	Min	Max
Food security	0.37	0.19	0	1
Aggregate infrastructure	17.98	15.95	−2.32	106.79
Transport	9.15	9.66	1.09	56.52
Electricity	7.49	15.29	−0.3	85.69
ICT	5.08	11.50	−30.63	74.61
Water supply and sanitation	53.61	20.99	−6.85	100.11
Inflation	9.31	34.25	−72.73	557.21
Population growth	2.44	0.91	−2.63	5.61
GDP per capita growth	1.45	4.49	−36.56	28.68
Merchandise trade	53.62	28.88	7.81	187.66
Political stability	−0.49	0.86	−2.69	1.28

Source: Authors’ computation.

Table 3. Correlation result.

Variables	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)
Food security	1.000
Aggregate infrastructure	0.879	1.000
Transport	0.735	0.816	1.000
Electricity	0.731	0.851	0.605	1.000
ICT	0.537	0.688	0.333	0.490	1.000
WSS	0.879	0.787	0.659	0.544	0.466	1.000
Inflation	−0.062	−0.048	−0.034	−0.029	−0.026	−0.041	1.000
Population growth	−0.579	−0.527	−0.561	−0.432	−0.220	−0.490	−0.002	1.000
GDP per capita growth	−0.083	−0.064	0.018	−0.039	−0.137	−0.121	−0.123	0.061	1.000
Merchandise trade	0.455	0.317	0.361	0.282	0.126	0.306	0.004	−0.454	−0.007	1.000
Political stability	0.526	0.443	0.508	0.346	0.151	0.387	−0.117	−0.316	0.062	0.393	1.000

Source: Authors’ computation.

Table 4. Cross-sectional dependence test.

Variable	CD-test	p Value	Mean ρ	Mean abs (ρ)
Food security	115.184	0.000	0.88	0.97
Aggregate infrastructure	127.954	0.000	0.98	0.98
Transport	4.803	0.000	0.04	0.49
Electricity	50.474	0.000	0.39	0.57
ICT	129.198	0.000	0.99	0.99
Water supply and sanitation	105.374	0.000	0.80	1.00
Inflation	24.714	0.000	0.19	0.30
Population growth	5.368	0.000	0.04	0.47
GDP per capita growth	23.094	0.000	0.18	0.26
Merchandise trade	14.179	0.000	0.11	0.37
Political stability	−.237	0.813	0.00	0.38

Source: Author’s computation.

Table 5. Im-Persaran-Shin panel unit root test result.

	Level
Variable	Constant	Trend	1st Difference	Decision
Food security	−2.306***	−2.950***	−2.828***	I (0)
Aggregate infrastructure	−2.093***	−2.547*	−3.875***	I (0)
Transport	−0.945	−1.956	−3.083***	I (1)
Electricity	−2.137***	−2.518*	−3.585***	I (0)
ICT	−2.527***	−2.871***	−3.006***	I (0)
Water supply and sanitation	−1.700	−2.022	−2.469***	I (0)
Inflation	−1.569	−2.261	−4.516***	I (1)
Population growth	−1.197	−2.373	−2.024**	I (1)
GDP per capita growth	−2.153***	−2.550*	−4.389***	I (0)
Merchandise trade	−1.497	−2.681***	−3.324***	I (0)
Political stability	−1.912	−2.753***	−3.719***	I (0)

Source: Authors’ computation.

Table 6. Result of the PCSE estimate on the effect of physical infrastructure on food security.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
Variable	fs_index	fs_index	fs_index	fs_index	fs_index
Inflation	−2.7705**	−6.7705**	−6.4906	−3.3505	−1.0705
	(1.3500)	(2.8600)	(2.2300)	(2.6100)	(1.3100)
Population growth	−0.0660**	−0.0130***	−0.0914**	−0.0148**	−0.0479*
	(0.0270)	(0.00292)	(0.00428)	(0.0672)	(0.00260)
GDP per capita growth	0.0157	7.94e-05	0.00207	0.0213	0.0160
	(0.0122)	(0.0224)	(0.0208)	(0.0269)	(0.0119)
Merchandise trade	0.0231***	0.0314***	0.0345***	0.0661***	0.0176***
	(6.42e-05)	(0.0101)	(0.000101)	(0.0137)	(5.83e-05)
Political stability	0.0789***	0.0125***	0.0153***	0.0294***	0.0952***
	(0.00245)	(0.00358)	(0.00408)	(0.00584)	(0.00222)
Aggregate infrastructure	0.0826***
	(0.0625)
Transport		0.0916***
		(0.0794)
Electricity			0.0664***
			(0.0558)
ICT				0.0448***
				(0.0107)
Water supply and sanitation					^0.0758***
					(0.0312)
Constant	0.227***	0.306***	0.329***	0.361***	−0.0315
	(0.0157)	(0.0218)	(0.0204)	(0.0207)	(0.0196)
Observations	880	880	880	880	880
R^2	0.690	0.447	0.492	0.391	0.791
No of countries	40	40	40	40	40

Source: Authors’ computation.

Note: Figures in parentheses are standard errors; ***, **, * indicate p < 0.01, p < 0.05 and p < 0.1, respectively.

Table

List of countries included in the study

Angola, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Niger, Somalia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, Mali, Cameroon, Gabon, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Togo, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe.