AFRICA Regional overview of food security and nutrition 2021: Statistics and trends

Nearly all countries in Africa experience the burden of malnutrition, mainly in the form of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Overweight and obesity are nonetheless emerging as significant health concerns in a number of countries. This section reports on four global nutrition indicators: stunting, wasting and overweight in children under the age of five, and anaemia in women of reproductive age.

2.1 Stunting among children under five

Globally, over one-in-five (149.2 million) children under five suffer from stunting. While Northern and Southern Africa are close to the global average, the prevalence is much higher in the other subregions (Table 6). Central Africa is the worst affected, followed by Eastern Africa. Though the level is still high, the prevalence of stunting has fallen in Africa and its subregions since 2000 (Figure 9). This fall has not been consistent across subregions, with Central, Northern and Southern Africa experiencing a slowdown in the rate of improvement in the past few years.

Africa has 61.4 million stunted children, and while the prevalence has fallen between 2012 and 2020, overall numbers have risen over this period (although they have fallen in Eastern Africa and remained unchanged in Southern Africa).

Between 2000 and 2020, the prevalence of stunting has fallen in nearly all countries in Africa (Figure 10). In part this is due to economic growth, with higher incomes leading to greater spending on health care and better diets. However, while economic growth can be pro-poor this is not an automatic outcome. The experience of several countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Sao Tome and Principe, and Senegal, show that substantial reductions in the prevalence of stunting are possible with high level political commitment, effective nutrition governance, and a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition, particularly in the first 1 000 days. In addition, aligning with the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and building partnerships have helped in planning and implementing nutrition sensitive and nutrition specific interventions using a multisectoral approach.^{7 7} For more detail see: FAO, ECA & AUC. 2020. Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2019. Containing the damage of economic slowdowns and downturns to food security in Africa. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/CA7343EN

In terms of stunting in children under the age of five, the progress made towards meeting the World Health Assembly (WHA) target for 2030 has been limited.⁸ No subregion is on track to meet the revised WHA stunting target by 2030, although all, except for Central Africa, have made some progress towards meeting the target.^{9 8} Since 2014, the Global Nutrition Report has tracked the progress of countries towards the global nutrition targets (https://globalnutritionreport.org/). For the methodology of how countries are tracked see: https://globalnutritionreport.org/reports/2020-global-nutrition-report/appendix-2-assessing-progress-against-global-nutrition-targets/ ⁹ FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP & WHO. 2021. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021. Transforming food systems for food security, improved nutrition and affordable healthy diets for all. Rome, FAO. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4474en