Community Clustering of Food Insecurity and Malnutrition Associated With Systemic Drivers in Chad.

This article examines the spatial distribution and distinct community-level drivers of child wasting (acute malnutrition) and household food insecurity in the Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal (BeG) regions of Chad, where both indicators exceed emergency thresholds. Using a mixed-methods approach—including a large cross-sectional survey of 7,002 households and 6,136 children, qualitative interviews, and geospatial analysis—the study finds that child wasting and food insecurity are highly clustered but do not necessarily co-occur in the same communities, indicating different causal pathways. Key drivers of food insecurity relate to poverty, livelihoods, conflict, and seasonal access to natural resources, while child wasting is associated with factors such as livestock ownership, environmental contamination, and water source quality, with gendered social norms also influencing nutritional outcomes. The findings highlight the need for integrated humanitarian, development, and peace-building (HDP) nexus interventions tailored to community-specific contexts and systemic drivers to more effectively address hunger and malnutrition in Chad's dryland regions.