Kyrgyzstan

Economic AI on the move: the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverages consumption and weight gain in Kyrgyzstan

The prevalence of overweight and obesity has been increasing in Central Asia. Among numerous potential dietary determinants of overweight and obesity, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have received a great deal of attention because they are a significant source of calories and added sugars in both children and adults. In this study, we examine the relationship between SSB consumption and overweight and obesity in Kyrgyzstan using household-level data from the Kyrgyzstan Integrated Household Survey 2011 using propensity score matching in tandem with machine-learning models. The findings of our study indicate SSBs consumption is associated with 1.6 percentage point higher risk of obesity among both men and women in the context of Kyrgyzstan. Besides, we have observed the positive association between age, income, calorie intake, and share of calorie intake from staples and the likelihood of being obese.

Land Reform and Child Health in the Kyrgyz Republic

Can the establishment of private property rights to land improve child health and nutrition outcomes? We exploit a natural experiment in the Kyrgyz Republic following the collapse of socialism, whereby the government rapidly liquidated state and collective farms containing 75 percent of agricultural land and distributed it to individuals, providing 99-year transferable use rights. We use household surveys collected before, during, and after the privatization reform and spatial variation in its timing to identify its health and nutrition impacts. We find that young children aged 0-5 exposed to land privatization for longer periods of time accumulated significantly greater gains in height- and weight- for-age z-scores, both critical measures of long-term child health and nutrition. Health improvements appear to be driven by increases in consumption of home-produced food rather than increased income from sale of production, likely due to under-developed markets. We find minimal impacts on urban-dwelling children affected only indirectly by the reform.

Assessing multicountry programs through a “Reach, Benefit, Empower, Transform” lens