Rural out-migration from Ghana’s development zones and household food security

ABSTRACT

Food security and human migration are both major developmental issues for governments, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. However, scholarship on the links between rural out-migration and food insecurity remains ambiguous about migrants in their destination and lacks ample comparison with the place of origin. Using data from the nationally representative Ghana Living Standards Survey (Round 7), we employed multinomial logit functions to examine the food security status of migrants relative to their non-migrant counterparts in their rural origins across Ghana’s three development zones i.e. Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern. The results showed that compared to their respective non-migrants, whereas rural out-migrants from the Coastal and Middle Belt development zones to urban areas were significantly more likely to be severely food insecure, rural out-migrants from the Northern Development Zone were less likely to be food insecure. Increase in household size and decrease in household expenditure were both associated with an increased likelihood of being food insecure across all development zones. These empirical findings highlight the importance of the unique characteristics of different migration flows in current food security and migration discourse globally. This study shows that rural out-migration to urban centers might not necessarily ensure relatively better food security as largely anticipated if the origin of migrants is overlooked.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural out-migration
• food insecurity
• development zones
• Ghana
• sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

There is no potential conflict of interest declared by the authors.

Notes

1. A referendum was conducted in December 2018 which approved the creation of six new districts out of four existing ones. Thus, Brong Ahafo Region now divides into Brong Ahafo, Bono-East and Ahafo. Northern Region now comprises Northern, Savannah and North East. Volta Region now has Volta and Oti while Western Region now has Western and Western-North. In all, Ghana now has sixteen regions. The creation of the new regions did not affect the development zone in which the old regions were assigned to. In some cases regions were divided on the basis of population growth not development.

2. This measure of food security is a modified version of the FIES and assumes that indicators that connote skipping a meal due to lack of access indicate severe food insecurity. Thus, responding Yes to 4 or more questions on the scale indicate severe food insecurity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

D. Yaw Atiglo

D. Yaw Atiglo is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) at the University of Ghana. His current research on food security is with the Building Research Capacity for Sustainable Water and Food Security in Drylands of sub-Saharan Africa (BRECcIA) Project. His research interests include food security, population and environment, population health, gendered vulnerability and migration.

Aaron Kobina Christian

Aaron K. Christian is a Research Fellow at the RIPS, University of Ghana, Legon. He holds a PhD in Population Studies. His research has been in examining how social, cultural, biological, and environmental factors interact to affect population health, nutrition and food security.

Michael Adu Okyere

Michael Adu Okyere is a PhD candidate at the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at the Xiamen University. His Research interest includes Food Security, Health, Energy Poverty and Development.

Samuel N. A. Codjoe

Samuel N. A. Codjoe is a professor at RIPS at the University of Ghana. He has led a number of research projects and published extensively on Population and Environment nexus, migration, Climate Change impact on Population Health and food security, climate change vulnerability and adaptation.