Understanding Undernourishment in South Asia: The Role of Political Stability

Abstract

Attaining the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2.1, which focuses on nutritious and safe food for all, remains a major challenge due to the slow pace of reduction in undernourishment across South Asia countries. Home to a significant share of the world’s population, South Asia continues to face considerable challenges in ensuring its citizens have adequate access to nutritious food. Many countries in the region face persistent socioeconomic and political challenges that hinder progress toward achieving a society free from undernourishment. In this context, the present study empirically examines the role of political stability on undernourishment, controlling crucial factors such as food production, the share of dietary energy supply derived from cereals/roots/tubers, inflation, population, and unemployment, in six South Asian countries from 2001 to 2021. Considering the problems of cross-sectional dependency, heteroscedasticity, and autocorrelation, the Panel-Corrected Standard Error model has been employed for the empirical analysis. The findings reveal that political stability can curb the prevalence of undernourishment. Moreover, food production can reduce undernourishment. However, inflation, population, and unemployment contribute to an increase in undernourishment. Addressing undernourishment in South Asian countries requires a coordinated and inclusive approach, considering the interconnectedness of inflation, population, and unemployment issues to achieve sustainable development goals.