Linking household access to food and social capital typologies in Phalombe District, Malawi

Abstract Food security remains a major sustainability challenge in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. has numerous determinants that are complex and interlinked, with one them being social capital. Social capital reflects an individual’s, household’s, or community’s networks, interactions, support systems can be mobilized times need to maintain, among others, livelihoods food security. This study aims further understand how typologies associated household Southern Malawi, focus on access food. We unpack into three typologies, namely bonding, bridging, linking capital, establish which is most strongly food, whether this varies by the gender head. To achieve this, we analyze secondary data from 382 households collected through Malawian Fourth Integrated Household Survey (IHS4), using principal axis factor analysis logistic regression analysis. Our findings demonstrate bonding bridging better while was lower Bonding for female-headed male-headed households, highlighting there differences between such households. work confirms observations other related studies Africa exploring interface It also highlights importance both acknowledging head unpacking its when considering