Priority Areas: Sanitation & Nutrition

Priority areas are identified using local coefficients estimated through Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), which measures the spatially varying relationship between access to sanitation and four nutrition indicators among children under five: stunting, wasting, severe wasting, and underweight.

The tool highlights locations where the local association between sanitation access and the selected nutrition indicator is both negative and statistically significant. In this application, priority areas are further restricted to locations where sanitation access is below 80%, ensuring that the results remain relevant for policy intervention.

The identified areas are classified as having strong, moderate, or mild associations according to the magnitude of the local GWR coefficient. This classification helps users determine the appropriate intensity of intervention. The spatially varying coefficients therefore allow users to identify areas where limited sanitation access is most strongly associated with poorer child nutrition outcomes, supporting targeted interventions, programme planning and place-based development strategies.