Recently, considerable attention has rightly been paid to the nutritional impact of the sharp
hikes in international food prices which took place in 2007-8 and, again, in 2010-11. While sacrosanct,
this growing focus has somewhat obscured the effect of other factors which do affect malnutrition in
the Sub-Saharan Africa context, i.e. the long term impact of agricultural policies, huge and persistent
seasonal variation in domestic food prices, and the impact of famines which still regularly stalk the
continent. This paper focuses on the relative weight of these factors in explaining child malnutrition
(proxied by the number of child admissions to feeding centers) in Malawi and Niger, two prototypical
countries in the region. The analysis shows that the drivers of domestic food staple prices and of the
ensuing child malnutrition have to be found not only – or not primarily – in the changes of
international food prices but mainly in the impact of agricultural policies on food production, the
persistence of a strong food price seasonality, and recurrent and often poorly attended famines.
Indeed, even during years of declines in international food prices, these factors often exert a huge
upward pressures on domestic food prices and child malnutrition