Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T16:05:30.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dietary changes in African urban households in response to currency devaluation: foreseeable risks for health and nutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Thierry Fouéré ,
Bernard Maire ,
Francis Delpeuch ,
Yves Martin-Prével ,
Félicité Tchibindat  and
Guy Adoua-Oyila
Thierry Fouéré
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Bernard Maire
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Francis Delpeuch*
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Yves Martin-Prével
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Félicité Tchibindat
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherche en Nutrition et Alimentation Humaines, BP 15238, Brazzaville, Congo
Guy Adoua-Oyila
Affiliation:
Bureau d'Etudes et Enquêtes, BP 9146, Talangaï, Brazzaville, Congo
*
*Corresponding author: Email delpeuch@mpl.ird.fr
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Objective

To investigate the effects of currency devaluation on dietary change and nutritional vulnerability of poor households in two African capital cities.

Design

A qualitative study based on 120 semistructured individual interviews and four focus group discussions in each city.

Setting

Dakar, Senegal (western Africa) and Brazzaville, Congo (central Africa).

Subjects

All of the subjects were randomly selected women from modest or poor households, who spoke the local common language and were responsible for household meal preparation. Only those likely to restrict the dynamic of focus group discussions (because of language, age or education) were excluded.

Results

Changes were found in meal preparation characteristics (frequency, sharing pattern) and meal composition. There was frequent depletion of fat and vegetable contents in meals, frequent elimination of desserts and even the elimination of one daily meal. These changes specifically affected economically disadvantaged and socially isolated households, and those headed by women. Other changes were the reduction in the size of consumption units and the development of neighbourhood-specific street food – which has been a growing trend in Brazzaville since the outset of the economic crisis but is more recent in Dakar.

Conclusions

If lasting, these changes pose a dual health risk, i.e. reducing dietary diversity and altering the bacteriological quality of prepared meals. In addition, attempts to reduce the consumption units were found to upset community ties that bind these societies.

Keywords

Dietary changesDevaluationUrban householdsQualitative studyNutritionVulnerable groupsAfrica
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 293 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2000

References

1Alibert, J.An account after the devaluation of the African Financial Community franc [in French]. Afr. Contempor. 1996; 179: 16–26.Google Scholar
2Kelly, V, Reardon, T, Diagana, B, Fall, A.Impacts of devaluation on Senegalese households: policy implications. Food Policy 1995; 20: 299–313.Google Scholar
3Ag Bendech, M, Chauliac, M, Gerbouin-Rerolle, P, Kante, N, Malvy, D.Devaluation of the CFA franc and feeding strategies of families in Bamako, Mali [in French]. Santé. 1997; 7: 361–71.Google Scholar
4Akindes, F.Devaluation and feeding in Abidjan, Ivory Coast [in French]. Cah. Rech. Dev. 1995; 40: 24–42.Google Scholar
5Delpeuch, F, Martin-Prevel, Y, Fouéré, T, et al. Complementary nutrition for the young child following the devaluation of the CFA franc (African Financial Community): two case studies in the Congo and Senegal urban environment [in French]. Bull. World Health Organ. 1996; 74: 67–75.Google Scholar
6Dufour, DL, Staten, LK, Reina, JC, Spurr, GB. Understanding the nutrition of poor urban women: ethnographic and biological approaches. Coll. Anthropol. 1997; 21: 29–39.Google ScholarPubMed
7De Castro, JM. Socio-cultural determinants of meal size and frequency. Br. J. Nutr. 1997; 77: S39–55.Google Scholar
8Locoh, T. African Families, Population, and the Quality of Life [in French]. Dossiers du CEPED No. 31. Paris: CEPED, 1995.Google Scholar
9Bentley, ME, Pelto, GH. The household production of nutrition. Introduction. Soc. Sci. Med. 1991; 33: 1101–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10Martin-Prével, Y, Delpeuch, F, Traissac, P, et al. Deterioration in the nutritional status of young children and their mothers in Brazzaville, Congo, following the 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc. Bull. World Health Organ. 2000; 78(1): 108–18.Google Scholar
11 Orstom, Sanas. Results of the nutrition survey conducted in Pikine, May–June 1996 [in French]. Dakar: Nutrition Unit, Orstom, 1997.Google Scholar
12Traissac, P, Delpeuch, F, Maire, B, Martin-Prével, Y, Cornu, A, Trèche, S.Construction of a synthetic index of the socio-economic level of households within the context of nutritional surveys. Example in the Congo [in French]. Rev. Epidemiol. Sante Publique 1997; 45 (Suppl. 1): 114–15.Google Scholar
13Scrimshaw, SCM, Hurtado, E. Rapid Assessment Procedures for Nutrition and Primary Health Care. Anthropological Approaches to Improving Programme Effectiveness. Tokyo: United Nations University, 1987.Google Scholar
14Dawson, S, Manderson, L, Tallo, V. A Manual for the Use of Focus Groups. Boston: International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries, 1993.Google Scholar
15Smith, PG, Morrow, RH, eds. Field Trials of Health Interventions in Developing Countries: a Toolbox, 2nd edn. London: McMillan Education Ltd, 1996.Google Scholar
16Dean, AG, Dean, JA, Coulombier, D, et al. Epi Info, Version 6: a Word Processing, Database, and Statistics Program for Epidemiology on Microcomputers. Atlanta, Georgia: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1995.Google Scholar
17Miles, MB, Huberman, AM. Qualitative Data Analysis. An Expanded Sourcebook, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1994.Google Scholar
18Maire, B, Delpeuch, F, Cornu, A, et al. Urbanization and nutritional transition in subsaharan Africa: exemplified by Congo and Senegal [in French]. Rev. Epidemiol. Sante Publique 1992; 40(4): 252–8.Google Scholar
19Longhurst, R.Household food strategies in response to seasonality and famine. IDS Bull. 1986; 17: 25–35.Google Scholar
20Corbett, JEM. Famine and household coping strategies. World Dev. 1988; 16: 1009–112.Google Scholar
21Thomas, RB, Leatherman, TL. Household coping strategies and contradictions in response to seasonal food shortage. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 1990; 44 (Suppl. 1): 103–11.Google ScholarPubMed
22Neumann, C, Trostle, R, Baksh, M, Ngare, D, Bwibo, N.Household response to the impact of drought in Kenya. Food Nutr. Bull. 1989; 11(2): 21–33.Google Scholar
23Bentley, GR, Aunger, R, Harrigan, AM, Jenike, M, Bailey, RC, Ellison, PT. Women's strategies to alleviate nutritional stress in a rural African society. Soc. Sci. Med. 1999; 48(2): 149–62.Google Scholar
24Dufour, DL, Staten, LK, Reina, JC, Spurr, GB. Living on the edge: dietary strategies of economically impoverished women in Cali, Colombia. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 1997; 102(1): 5–15.Google Scholar
25Ruel, MT, Garrett, JL, Morris, SSUrban Challenges to Food and Nutrition Security: a Review of Food Security, Health, and Caregiving in the Cities. FCND DiscussionPaper No. 51Washington, DCIFPRI 1998.Google Scholar
26Ndione, ES. Dakar, a society in clusters [in French]. Paris: Karthala and Enda-Graf Sahel, 1993.Google Scholar
27De Suremain, CE. There is only one step from the compound to the street: a socio-anthropological approach of precariousness in Brazzaville (Congo) [in French]. Autrepart 1998; 7: 43–62.Google Scholar
28Bricas, N, Sauvinet, R. La Diversification de la Consommation: une Tendance d' Évolution des Styles Alimentaires au Sahel. Bamako: CILSS, 1989.Google Scholar
29Mahieu, FR, Odounfana, A. Contraintes communautaires et consommation alimentaire. In: Alimentation, Techniques et Innovations dans les Régions Tropicales. Muchnik, Ed. Paris: L'harmattan, 1993; 93–126.Google Scholar
30Nago, MC. L'alimentation de rue en milieu urbain africain. In: Nago, MC, Hounhouigan, JD, de Koning, F, Gross, R, eds. La Situation Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle dans les Zones Urbaines en Afrique. Porto Novo: CNPMS, 1996; 290–304.Google Scholar
31Ag Bendech, M, Chauliac, M, Malvy, D.Assessment of dietary intake at home and outside the home in Bamako (Mali). Ecol. Food Nutr. 1998; 37: 135–62.Google Scholar
32Hatloy, A, Torheim, LE, Oshaug, A.Food variety – a good indicator of nutritional adequacy of the diet? A case study from an urban area in Mali, West Africa. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 1998; 52: 891–8.Google Scholar
33Chauliac, M, Bricas, N, Ategbo, E, Amoussa, W, Zohoun, I.Food habits outside the home by school children in Cotonou [in French]. Sante 1998; 8(2): 101–8.Google ScholarPubMed
34Molbak, K, Hojlyng, N, Jepsen, S, Gaarlsev, K.Bacterial contamination of stored water and stored food: a potential source of diarrhoeal disease in West Africa. Epidemiol. Infect. 1989; 102: 309–16.Google Scholar
35Faye, O, Fofana, P, Correa, J, et al. Intestinal parasites in the vendors and consumers of street food. A study conducted in the Dakar area [in French]. Bull. Soc. Pathol. Exot. 1998; 91: 169–72.Google Scholar
36Ashenafi, M.Bacteriological profile and holding temperatures of ready-to-serve food items in an open market in Assawa, Ethiopia. Trop. Geogr. Med. 1995; 47: 244–7.Google Scholar
37Arambulo, P III, Almeida, CR, Cuellar, J, Belotto, AJ. Street food vending in Latin America. Bull. Pan Am. Health Organ. 1994; 28: 344–54.Google ScholarPubMed
38Beckerleg, S.Food bowl division and social change. Ecol. Food Nutr. 1995; 34: 89–104.Google Scholar
39Community Nutrition Project. Republic of Senegal. Staff Appraisal Report No. 14004-SE. Dakar: AGETIP and Washington, DC: World Bank, 1995.Google Scholar
40Ekanem, ED. The street food trade in Africa: safety and socio-environmental issues. Food Control 1998; 9: 211–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar