Impact of Food Availability on Economic Growth and Child Mortality: A Cross Country Comparative Analysis

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of food availability on economic growth and child mortality; especially within food insecure African countries where child mortality is high and economic growth is considered as the highest hurdle to overcome. This study made use of both empirical and statistical tools to achieve its objective. The empirical aspect consists of two parts. First, Solow growth model was used to explore the impact of food security on economic growth within 124 countries, including food insecure African countries, for the period 1970-2007; the result posits that food security has a positive impact on economic growth in all the 124 countries and it has even greater impact on economic growth within food insecure African countries. Second, this study examined the impact of food security on child mortality (infant mortality and under-five mortality), using a dynamic panel data analysis for 114 countries for the period 1995-2009 by considering a wide range of controlled variables such as income, social indicators and policy variables. The result suggests that food security has a negative impact on child mortality for all countries and even more impact on child mortality within food insecure African countries. Therefore, based on the findings of this study; it is recommended that an increase in food security is indeed a positive policy option, particularly within food insecure African countries, since it not only enhances economic growth but also ensures a decrease in child mortality within these countries. Keywords: African Dummy, Economic Growth, Food Crisis, Food Availability, Africa.