Antipoverty policies in developing countries often assume
that targeting poor households will be reasonably effective
in reaching poor individuals. This paper questions
this assumption, using nutritional status as a proxy for
individual poverty. The comprehensive assessment for
Sub-Saharan Africa reveals that undernourished women
and children are spread widely across the distribution of
household wealth and consumption. Roughly three-quarters
of underweight women and undernourished children
are not found in the poorest 20 percent of households, and
around half are not found in the poorest 40 percent. The
mean joint probability of being an underweight woman
and living in the poorest wealth quintile is only 0.03.
Countries with higher overall rates of undernutrition
tend to have a higher share of undernourished individuals
in nonpoor households. The results are consistent
with evidence of substantial intrahousehold inequality