This paper studies the effect of a political regime transition on food security and more specifically on child mortality. Using a new estimation approach, the Synthetic Control Method, we find that a political reform towards a democracy does not systematically reduce child mortality. Of the 33 country case studies, we find a significant and positive relation between food security and political reforms for 4 countries, while for the remaining 29 countries no impact was found. These results are in contrast with the results from the traditional difference-in-difference estimations