Equity in Social and Development Studies Research: Insights for Nutrition

Abstract

While much international nutrition research deals with certain aspects of equity, such as the disempowerment of women producing negative effects on nutrition outcomes, we argue that the nutrition field has only partly addressed equity issues in its research to date. The closely related disciplines of development studies and work on the social determinants of health have long histories of researching equity issues, and these ideas could be readily applied to research on global nutritional inequities. This paper reviews the treatment of equity in the relevant bodies of research and suggests ways in which international nutrition research could extend and deepen its treatment of equity issues using insights from these related fields of study.