Underweight prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa remained roughly the same from 1990 to 2004. Given this lack of progress and population growth, the total number of underweight children actually increased. Contributory factors were drought, conflict, poverty and HIV/AIDS.
“One out of five children in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia is underweight, and the proportion of underweight children in Lesotho and Zimbabwe was higher in 2004 than in 1990.”
“In Ethiopia, almost half of children are underweight, a rate unchanged since 1990, making it unlikely the country will achieve the target without an extraordinary push.”
“Wasting in the Sahelian countries affects more than 1 million children”
(Progress for children: a report card on nutrition, UNICEF, 2006)
Progress has been made in some countries, such as Botswana, which reduced underweight prevalence from 17 per cent in 1996 to 13 per cent in 2000, in spite of its record high HIV prevalence rate. Nigeria is improving at a rate of 2.2 per cent a year, yet due to its large population its proportion of underweight children still dominates regional statistics.
Click on the links below to find up to date news on progress in the region. If you have news from Sub-Saharan Africa that you would like to share email us.
The 3rd Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS) meeting was held in Arusha, Tanzania from 25-29th May 2015. The Federation of African Nutrition Societies (FANUS) is a conglomeration of nutrition societies of African nations with the vision to promote and sustain nutrition security and national development in all countries of Africa. The congress was attended by […]
A meeting was held at the IAEA Headquarters, Vienna, March 19-20, 2012 to update members on the IMTF activities in 2011 and to discuss plans for 2012. Below see details and links to reports and presentations made at the meeting. IMTF update and report 2011This was prepared for the meeting to update the group on […]
The IMTF and Faculty of Medicine University of Southampton have developed an eLearning course titled “Caring for Infants and young children with severe malnutrition” based on the WHO recommended guidelines for the management of severe malnutrition. The course aims at providing a standardised and accessible resource that will facilitate the acquisition by health professionals of […]
This correspondence is available in the March issue of the Journal of the World Public Health Nutrition Association. Focussing on RUTF, the authors specifically asked the question “Is RUTF ever the right approach?” The authors argued: “We are not convinced that RUTF is ever a successful approach. The research studies on which this conclusion has […]
Attending FANUS 2011? The Federation of African Nutrition Societies 2011 meeting will be held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Nigeria from the 11th to 14th September 2011 on the theme “Accelerating Nutrition Action for Africa’s development”. The International Malnutrition Task Force has organised the following sessions: 1. Workshop to discuss development of competency based […]
In this recent world report published in the Lancet, an estimated 8·8 million people in east Africa are going hungry, and a sluggish international response is failing to address the growing crisis, which is approaching famine conditions in some areas. The report says US Government’s Famine Early Warning Network issued a series of special alerts […]
A meeting will be held in November 2011 in Addis Ababa Ethiopia to facilitate the sharing of lessons learned and build consensus on a range of issues relating to national scale-up of CMAM. The meeting aims at identifying and documenting the policy environment, coordination, funding mechanisms, technical and operational considerations which are needed in order […]
“Education and professional core competencies for nutritional practice and nutritional support and training of health workers in the treatment and prevention of nutritional problems across the life cycle” Nutritionists and related health professionals attending the 4th African Nutrition and Epidemiology Conference in Nairobi resolved for core competencies for nutrition practice and support and management of […]
By Samuel Loewenberg The Lancet 2010;376:579-81 Niger is facing a catastrophyic hunger crisis as aid agencies scramble to secure funding to feed more than half of the country’s 8 million people. The report states that months of appeal to the international community for help fell on deaf ears, leaving Niger facing the all too familiar […]
Giugliani C, Duncan BB, Harzheim E, Breysse S, Jarrige L. A study has shown that short-term intervention with in-service supervision based on the WHO guidelines in a setting of limited resources contributed to a reduction in fatality rates from severe malnutrition The study measured the impact of practice review and in-service supervision based on WHO […]