Impact of violent conflicts on children health in Cameroon: A double difference analysis

Larissa Nawo, University of Dschang

Violent conflicts may enduring health repercussions, but measuring systematically such impacts is empirically tough. Using Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) which control for children Health before and after conflicts started , we analyses direct impacts of exposure to ongoing conflicts on children’s under 5 health in Cameroon. Double-difference (difference-indifference) method is used to evaluate impact of conflicts on children health. We use an update version of Raleigh et al. (2010) data base to control for events of violent conflicts. We argue that poor child health outcomes in the conflict areas of Cameroon may be due to disruptions to social services and increased food insecurity and which has exacerbated the already-delicate economic situation. Previous studies: suggest that, if children found to the strife had not been exposed, their mean weight-for height z-score would be 0.49 standard deviations higher (p < 0.001) than it is, rising from - 0.74 to - 0.25.