Child malnutrition is pervasive in Mozambique. While previous studies
only focused on absolute levels of child malnutrition, in this paper we
study its determinants and analyse the extent of socioeconomic inequality
in malnutrition using data from the Mozambican Household Budget
Survey 1996-97 and 2008-09. Controlling for demographic variables, it
emerges that income, mother's education, water and sanitation conditions
and area of residence strongly influence chronic malnutrition. Moreover,
we found pro-rich inequalities in the distribution of stunting and further
decompositions of the concentration index into its components reveal that
most of the inequality in chronic malnutrition is due to inequality in
consumption.
Notwithstanding the great efforts exerted by the Mozambican government
to reduce child malnutrition, we claim that while absolute levels of
malnutrition decreased between 1996-97 and 2008-09, socioeconomic
inequality in chronic child malnutrition did not decrease meanwhile. It
actually slightly increased in the same period. We conclude that side
policies aimed at reducing inequality in child malnutrition together with
its absolute levels are largely needed.