Pathways to child food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Utilizing the Sustainable Development Goals Framework and Implications for Social Work

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals offer a framework to advance goals of alleviating poverty and upholding human rights. This exploratory study benchmarks progress on child food security, particularly in the critical geographies of Sub Saharan Africa. The study provides an overview of existing data to facilitate further exploration and offers theoretical and tactical considerations to tackle child food insecurity. A three-pronged approach to understand parallel and intersecting pathways to child food insecurity is proposed. Our evaluation points to the need for future assessments to examine child hunger and malnutrition using more comprehensive data and theoretical frameworks.