If we allow malnutrition to continue to afflict Africa, our continent’s speed and quality of development will continue to be low, slow and painful. (Photo: ©FAO)

14 March 2018, Nairobi – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) underscored the need to continuously support African governments to lower the levels of undernutrition, stunting and obesity.

In his opening statement at the Third FAO Africa Regional Nutrition Coordination and Programming Consultation, held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 13 to 15 March 2018, Bukar Tijani, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, said, “Food insecurity, nutrition and especially malnutrition, have become a very important aspect of the FAO’s mandate in Africa.”

FAO nutrition experts from the region have gathered this week to improve on the coordination and delivery of the organization’s nutrition programming. Mr. Tijani further added, “This consultation should give us an insight as to how FAO can support country partners, regional partners the AU as well as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Making sure that nutrition issues in all its facets are addressed in terms of policy, nutrition education and the triple burden where obesity in children and adults and other forms of nutrition is prevalent.”

The most recent estimates of undernourishment, presented in FAO’s 2017 Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, showed that good progress had been made in reducing the prevalence of undernourishment until 2010. However, there has been little improvement since 2010, and the prevalence of undernourishment appears to have risen from about 21 percent to just under 23 percent between 2015 and 2016, while over the same period, the number of undernourished rose from 200 million to 224 million.

“If we allow malnutrition to continue to afflict Africa, our continent’s speed and quality of development will continue to be low, slow and painful,” added Gabriel Rugalema, FAO Representative in Kenya. He noted that malnutrition is still a daunting problem in Africa, but one that can be solved.

Rugalema held that “the challenge of nutrition we face today is not an eternal burden. It is a challenge that other countries have solved. It is a challenge that can be solved in our lifetime”.

Recalling the main purpose of the founding of FAO, he said this UN agency’s mandate is to raise “levels of nutrition and standards of living” of people across the globe. Improving and raising the levels of nutrition is fundamental to achieving FAO’s vision of a world free from hunger and malnutrition. A world where food systems and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all, especially the most vulnerable and the poorest.

The real costs of malnutrition

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development called on all countries and stakeholders to act together to end hunger and prevent all forms of malnutrition. Africa is the only region of the world with significant child stunting problems; it still has the highest prevalence of undernourishment, leads the rest of the world in having the highest prevalence of anemia, and is racing to catch up on the burden of obesity.

In Africa, FAO is working towards Zero Hunger, and one of the key pillars of action is to focus on nutrition-sensitive food systems. Mr. Rugalema explained that nutrition is the foundation of life and “without nutrition there would be no life. Food that is not nutritious will do more harm than good,” leading to undernutrition, wasting and obesity.

Citing figures from UNICEF, the FAO Representative in Kenya pointed out that malnutrition among children costs African countries a staggering US$25 billion a year in loss of productivity and health costs. This does not include the cost of malnutrition among adults, particularly women and the elderly.

He further stated, “We are talking of a sum that is much higher than US$25 billion. With this amount of money, Africa could build a standard gauge railway from South Africa to South Sudan or from Cameroon to Sierra Leone”.

Each year, malnutrition costs Africa a higher sum than the GDP of each of the following countries: Equatorial Guinea (US$23 billion), Seychelles (US$2 billion), Gabon (US$22 billion), Mauritius (US$18 billion), Botswana (US$18 billion), Namibia (US$14 billion), Swaziland (US$6 billion), Democratic Republic of the Congo (US$17 billion), Uganda (US$23 billion) and Zambia (US$22 billion).

Mr. Rugalema observed that the high cost of malnutrition could actually be avoided to save the African continent a lot of money that could and should be invested in social and economic development.

Towards sustainable nutrition-sensitive food systems

FAO Representative in Kenya concluded his statement by urging participants to step up efforts to rekindle the nutrition agenda with vigour and sense of urgency, and suggested predictive analysis based on available data for policy and decision-making, arguing that “nutrition is ripe for big data and I believe FAO can play a key role.”

In Africa, rapid urbanization, increasing off-farm employment, rising incomes and other factors are leading to new lifestyles, causing changes to food habits and nutrition.