| Tanzanians at risk as eating habits change | Send to a friend |
| Thursday, 02 February 2012 07:44 |
 By Songa wa SongaThe Citizen Correspondent Dar es Salaam. Skyrocketing food prices and inflation have hit the average Tanzanian family hard, with one in every five households being forced to change its eating patterns.The situation is so bad that some families have reduced the number of meals they have as a way of coping with the hardships brought about by the rise in commodity prices, with the number of low income households that could afford three meals a day decreasing by about 20 per cent since the end of 2010. Food and nutrition experts are now raising the alarm following the release yesterday of a report compiled by the Dar es Salaam Mobile Phone Public Services Monitoring Project in collaboration with Twaweza. According to the report, many people have abandoned meat, fish and chicken and opted for much cheaper foods. Slightly more than four out of every 10 households in the lowest income bracket, at 43.6 per cent, reported in 2010 that they typically had three meals a day. That number dropped to 35.2 per cent in 2011. The baseline study, funded by the World Bank to assess the effects of rising food prices on the lives of citizens in the city and their food consumption patterns, was conducted through mobile phone interviews with 350 residents in all three districts of Dar es Salaam. “More meaningful patterns of change can be observed when turning to the type of food that was consumed during family meals… consumption of a number of food types has decreased since the end of 2010,” the report says. “This has affected food availability for individual households.” The culprit, according to the researchers, is unremitting inflation which reached 18 per cent in December. Should the situation remain unchanged, according to Dar es Salaam-based nutritionist Sylvia Imalike, it could have a devastating impact on children, who need sufficient protein to grow. Children who are underfed are likely to be stunted. The ripple effect will be felt in the classrooms—where children risk becoming dull and slow learners. Adults could be forced into eating junk food, which is rich in carbohydrates and fat, leading to obesity and a host of non-communicable lifestyle diseases. Ms Imalike added: “Apart from imminent peptic ulcers, their work performance and concentration will definitely be affected and the elderly will be weakened significantly.” The study also found that 51.3 per cent of the respondents who were negative about their own economic situation in 2010 had now risen to 72.5 per cent—nearly three in four respondents—in 2011. The percentage of citizens who thought the economic state of Tanzania was bad or very bad rose by nearly one-third, from 65.7 per cent to 85.7 per cent. The second section of the study, which queried political participation and trust in government officials, reported more support for strengthening of parliamentary democracy. The results suggest that respondents are relatively confident that the president is working in the citizens’ interests. Nonetheless, when asked how the power of the presidency should be adjusted in the new constitution of the country, a mere 27.2 per cent think his power should be extended while 44 per cent believe it should be limited. “In contrast, a majority of respondents (54.7 per cent) believe that the constitution should be changed in order to allow the transfer of more power to the Tanzanian Parliament,” the report adds. The respondents did not believe that those employed by the government are actually working in the interest of the people. One reason for this lack of public trust, according to the study, is corruption and bribery—which are major obstacles to development. To measure the extent to which corruption is seen as prevalent in the country, respondents were asked to imagine that the government had decided to compensate them for the effects of rising food prices by giving each household a gift of Sh10,000 in cash. Interviewees were then asked how much of that money they would most likely actually receive. The findings show that corruption is perceived as widespread in the city; almost seven in 10 respondents (67.4 per cent) believe that no money at all would ever reach the rightful recipients while a mere 5.7 per cent would expect their household to receive the complete amount.” Reportedly implemented by a group of independent consultants, the project builds on the high use of mobile phones in the city to gather data on citizens’ perception of and experiences with public services by calling respondents from a pool of 550 every two weeks to administer short interviews. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
| Last Updated on Friday, 03 February 2012 03:01 |
Comments
I commend those who came up with the idea of collecting quick data. It helps to know what is on the ground for decision makers to start planning of the ways of arresting the situation.
I have no problem with the number of interviewed people,as I believe it is a statistically derived sample. Big up TWAWEZA and WB.
RSS feed for comments to this post