This section reports on four global nutrition indicators: stunting, wasting and overweight in children under five years of age, and anaemia in women aged 15 years to 49 years.
Stunting is defined as low height-for-age. It is a largely irreversible outcome and is the result of poor maternal health and nutrition, inadequate infant and young child feeding practices, and repeated infections interacting with a variety of other factors over a sustained period. Stunting before the age of two years predicts poorer cognitive and educational outcomes in later childhood and adolescence and higher susceptibility to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in adulthood. This can affect labour productivity, income-earning potential and social skills later in life. Stunted children have an increased risk of becoming overweight or obese later in life (WHO, 2014 and FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2020).
Globally, over one in five children (148.1 million) under five years of age were stunted in 2022. In Africa, the prevalence of stunting among children in the same age category is 30 percent, which is significantly higher than the global estimate of 22.3 percent. While Northern Africa and Southern Africa are close to the global estimate, the prevalence is much higher in the other subregions. Central Africa is the worst affected subregion, at 37.4 percent (TABLE 7).
Despite the high prevalence of stunting reported in 2022, some noticeable improvements were made at continental and subregional levels in reducing it. The prevalence of stunting has fallen gradually in Africa and in its subregions since 2000 (FIGURE 10). This fall has not been similar across subregions, as Central Africa, Northern Africa and Southern Africa experienced a slowdown in the rate of improvement in the past few years. Eastern Africa made the greatest reduction, with 18.1 percentage points, compared to other subregions. The continent and all the subregions are off track to meet the 2030 target for stunting among children under five years of the World Health Assembly (WHA).
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2012 | 2015 | 2020 | 2022 | |
| World | 33.0 | 31.1 | 27.9 | 26.3 | 24.6 | 22.7 | 22.3 |
| Africa | 40.8 | 39.1 | 36.0 | 34.4 | 32.7 | 30.8 | 30.0 |
| Central Africa | 43.8 | 41.3 | 38.7 | 37.9 | 37.7 | 37.8 | 37.4 |
| Eastern Africa | 48.7 | 45.8 | 41.0 | 38.6 | 35.8 | 31.9 | 30.6 |
| Northern Africa | 27.3 | 25.2 | 24.4 | 23.5 | 22.5 | 22.0 | 21.7 |
| Southern Africa | 27.8 | 27.4 | 24.5 | 23.4 | 22.9 | 22.8 | 22.8 |
| Western Africa | 39.2 | 38.5 | 36.0 | 34.5 | 32.9 | 30.8 | 30.0 |
At country level, the prevalence of stunting in 2022 was particularly high (above 35 percent) in ten countries while it was 10 percent or less in six countries, namely, Algeria, Cabo Verde, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Tunisia. Between 2000 and 2022, there was substantial improvement towards reducing stunting in the majority of countries. The prevalence of stunting worsened only in Eritrea and Libya, where more than half the children under five years of age were stunted in 2022 (FIGURE 11).
