Political will can solve malnutrition – but Africa’s record in dealing with malnutrition has been dismal
KAMPALA, 26 July 2010 (IRIN): “Children do not vote,” said Dr Robert Mwadime, of Uganda Action for Nutrition, at a session on the subject before the three-day African Union (AU) meeting opened in Kampala, Uganda.
This means that political leaders in Africa often pay scant attention to the millions of children who die every year of malnutrition-related causes. Most of the audience nodded in agreement; many clapped.
The theme of the AU session was “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa”, so it was an apt opportunity to wave the flag.
– Nutrition is practically an orphan, Prof Richard Mkandawire, head of NEPAD’s (New Partnership for African Development) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), commented. About 40 percent of children younger than five in Africa are chronically malnourished.
Nutrition to the fore
The food price crisis of 2006-08 pushed the number of malnourished children to shocking levels and put a new focus on nutrition.
Africa’s efforts to deal with malnutrition and hunger have been dismal. Only nine African countries are on track to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve hunger and malnutrition by 2015, according to a 2009 report by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Some leaders may not consider nutrition to be politically expedient because it requires investment over the long term, and the results are not always immediately visible,” the UNICEF report had said. Donors with limited budgets for aid often “focus elsewhere”.
Finding solutions
More than 70 percent of Africa’s population is rural and depends on agriculture for food and income, so the solution to food security seems easy and logical: people can grow enough nutritious food to feed themselves.
Rémi Kahane, Executive Secretary of the Global Horticulture Initiative, a non-profit programme, said growing vegetables not only brought a better income for small-scale farmers but also improved their diet.
Yet Africa has some of the world’s highest levels of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, especially among pre-school aged children: about 68 percent suffer from anaemia (blodmangel) caused by a lack of iron, found in green leafy vegetables like spinach; up to 40 percent lack vitamin A, found in vegetables like carrots and pumpkins (græskar).
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