Gender attributes of the impact of informal savings and loans associations on food security in rural Zimbabwe

Terrence Kairiza, George Kembo, Vengesai Magadzire and Asankha Pallegedara

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, 2021, vol. 13, issue 2, 342-357

Abstract: Purpose - In the absence of well-developed financial markets, Informal Savings and Loans Associations (ISLAs) provide rural households with an alternative consumption coping mechanisms when confronted by transitory and seasonal food insecurity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the household food consumption coping strategies and gendered importance of ISLAs in improving household food security in rural Zimbabwe. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses household panel data on rural livelihoods from the 2019 and 2020 household surveys conducted by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC). Employing propensity score matching approach to cater for the self-selection bias associated with household ISLA membership, the study estimates average treatment effect of household ISLA membership on food security and gendered importance of the propensity of the household to engage in consumption coping strategies. Findings - Results shows that the ISLA membership increases household food security and reduces the household propensity to apply non-ISLA consumption coping mechanisms. Female-headed households with ISLA members are more able to increase food security as well as reduce reliance on non-ISLA consumption coping mechanisms than their male counterparts with ISLA members. Research limitations/implications - Use of household dietary diversity score and food consumption score as two proxies to measure household food security. Originality/value - This study contributes to the literature on food consumption coping strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa using recent household panel data.

Keywords: Africa; Rural areas; Gender differences; Food security; Informal savings associations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jadeep:jadee-05-2021-0104

DOI: 10.1108/JADEE-05-2021-0104

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies is currently edited by Anthony N. Rezitis

More articles in Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().