In Summary
Improving diets and eliminating malnutrition must not only be part of our moral imperative, but our economic one too.
As we look ahead to the African Economic Conference, let’s continue working to translate these commitments into action that can pave the way for an Africa where every child has the nutrition they need to survive and thrive. A renaissance in Africa is simply not possible without a food and nutrition secure continent.
Her Excellency Rhoda Peace Tumusiime is Uganda’s former Commissioner for Agriculture Planning and Commissioner for Women and the current Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union.
By Rhoda Peace Tumusiime.
Economic growth, agricultural output and improved infrastructure. These are just a few of the indicators typically used to measure how well a nation and its people are doing.
Looking simply at these measures of success, our continent is indeed making progress. Yet there’s one area where uneven progress threatens to undermine our advances in all others—child malnutrition.
Africa is home to approximately 27 per cent of the world’s under-five population and is projected to reach 40 per cent by 2050. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity as these new, young labour market entrants have the potential to lift our continent out of poverty – but only if we ensure that they have the nutrition they need to reach their full potential.
One-third of the world’s stunted children under age five live in Africa—holding individuals, communities and nations back from achieving their full potential. Surprisingly, the rate of obesity and overweight is also increasing.
Almost one-quarter of all overweight children under age five live in Africa. This is a new challenge that many nations around the world are facing—a double burden of malnutrition in which some consume too much and some too little—but at the centre, it is about children lacking access to the quality diet they need for a healthy start in life.
Early childhood is a time of substantial growth fueled, in large part, by nutrition. There is no other period when the human brain develops faster than during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life— from conception to the child’s second birthday—when good nutrition is critical to ensuring optimal growth and development.
Poor early childhood development is estimated to lead to the loss of roughly a quarter of average adult earning potential. Across the African continent, the economic impact of malnutrition is estimated to be as high as $25 billion per year, with countries losing between 3 per cent and 16 per cent of their GDP every year. Uganda loses 5.6 per cent of its GDP to undernutrition every year.
We can invest in infrastructure such as bridges and roads, but without investing in the gray matter infrastructure of our children’s growing minds, we will hold ourselves back from achieving all that we can as individuals and nations.
A new report by the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition shows that food systems in Africa are simply not delivering the quality diets that children—and all of us—need.
The report warns that unless immediate action is taken, these trends are only expected to get worse.
As a result, today’s health challenges will be compounded as we see a rapid increase in diet-related non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. In fact, Africa’s obesity rate (with the exception of North Africa) is expected to double from that of 2005.
To improve nutrition, we must consider changes to the foods we produce and how they are cultivated, processed, marketed and consumed. Across the continuum, from farm to table, we can identify ways to improve not just how and what people eat, but how they can be better nourished.
Efforts to improve nutrition on the continent are already underway, thanks to our work with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the adoption of the Malabo Declaration.
These efforts, together with the recent commemoration of the seventh Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security, underscore the fact that increased production is only part of the puzzle. We need an agricultural sector that not only provides food, but high-quality diets, too.
Improving diets and eliminating malnutrition must not only be part of our moral imperative, but our economic one too.
As we look ahead to the African Economic Conference, let’s continue working to translate these commitments into action that can pave the way for an Africa where every child has the nutrition they need to survive and thrive. A renaissance in Africa is simply not possible without a food and nutrition secure continent.
Her Excellency Rhoda Peace Tumusiime is Uganda’s former Commissioner for Agriculture Planning and Commissioner for Women and the current Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union.
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