SADC suffers chronic malnutrition

Botswana will conduct the cost of hunger study to determine the amount of money spent on addressing nutrition inefficiencies.

Speaking at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) conference that ended last Friday in Phakalane, African Union Head of Food and Nutrition Programme Bibi Giyose said the study is intended to find the costs of hunger and malnutrition as well as to design the country’s nutrition policy. “There is no way of telling how much of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) goes to nutrition and the study will determine that,” she said. The nutrition talks indicated that communities within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) suffer from chronic malnutrition due to poor capacities to fight hunger by their governments. SADC delegates indicated that most countries do not have exact policies that incorporate nutrition into their national agricultural plans. SADC representative Joseph Mthetwa said it is a challenge to align nutrition to agriculture, as some countries do not even know were it is positioned within their different sectors.

He said, as a result, Sub Saharan Africa including SADC suffer from high mortality due to poverty, especially expectant mothers. He said due to poverty and poor nutrition a number of children suffer from stunted growth, causing ill development of the brain and face new challenges such as obesity. According to the Africa Region Nutrition Officer, Mohamed Ag-Bendech, 50 percent reduction in mortality can only be achieved through improved nutrition, sanitation and social well being of the people. Ag-Bendech explained that if provided with the right technology and methodology on how to incorporate nutrition into policies, governments can go a long way in improving the livelihoods of their citizens.  Deputy Permanent Secretary of Support Services at the Ministry of Agriculture Boweditswe Masilo said malnutrition cases in Africa have escalated when compared to the 1990s. He said now the problem has fueled social and economic challenges.

“Therefore it is important to deal with the problem within different sectors of the economy because the Ministry of Agriculture cannot do it on their own,” he said.
Masilo said part of their plan is to engage local small farming communities to take part in the school feeding programs. The farmers will be given knowledge on nutrition issues to ensure that they provide children with balanced diet. “School feeding can go a long way in ensuring nutrition within students as well as lure children to school,” he said.