Eating Meat or Eating Money? Factors Influencing Animal-Source Food Consumption in Timor-Leste

Poor dietary quality is an underlying contributor to the high rates of maternal and child undernutrition in Timor-Leste. The majority of households own livestock, however consumption of domestic animal-source food (ASF) is low, while few households report using non-domesticated species. Two hundred and three households with children under 24 months, in 3 villages, were enrolled in a quantitative study of maternal and child dietary diversity, alongside 12 key informants recruited for in-depth interviews and 312 participants, mostly mothers and fathers of young children, for focus group discussions. Participants expressed a desire to consume more ASF. Barriers to ASF consumption included having low-income or limited-income streams, high levels of small livestock morbidity and mortality leading to small or unstable flock or herd sizes, reserving livestock for sale and ceremonies and living far from forested areas or where hunting was not allowed. Factors that enabled greater ASF consumption included villages being near forested areas with wild animal populations, observance of a large number of ceremonies of long duration, households with a greater number of small livestock, and where women were able to make autonomous decisions about livestock assets. Policies and programmes designed to achieve sustainable improvements in household nutrition would include a focus on women and improving the health and production of small livestock species frequently utilised by households.