Underfeeding falls in Tanzania over 10 years-report

Dar es Salaam. The prevalence of underfeeding in Tanzania has declined over the past decade. This is despite the fact that hunger appears to be increasing in Africa, with 23 per cent of the population being undernourished on the continent, says a new United Nations report.

However, the prevalence of undernourishment stood at 32 per cent in Tanzania in 2017, compared to 34.4 per cent in 2005, says the report which was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month.

In neighbouring Uganda, the prevalence had risen to 41.4 per cent in 2017, up from 24.1 per cent in 2005. In Rwanda, underfeeding prevalence had fallen to 36.1 per cent in 2017, down from 45.3 per cent in 2005.

The prevalence in Kenya also fell to 24.2 per cent, down from 28.2 per cent in 2005.

The prevalence of stunting in under-five children in Africa is falling. But, only a few African countries are on track to meet the global nutrition target for stunting, the report says.

The report further states that sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected by hunger on the continent, thereby undermining efforts to attain Goal-2 of the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-2030) which aims at “ending all forms of hunger by 2030.”

Eastern Africa carries a third of the hunger burden vis-à-vis the rest of the continent where hunger has risen since the year 2015.

Also, it shows that, compared to 2015, there are 34.5 million more undernourished people in Africa; 32.6 million more in sub-Saharan Africa, and 1.9 million more in Northern Africa.

Nearly half of the increases was due to the rise in undernourished people in Western Africa.

Titled ‘2018 Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition,’ the UN report was jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Following release of the report, a professor from the Department of Food Technology, Nutrition and Consumer Sciences at the Morogoro-based Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Peter Mamiro, has called for sensitisation campaigns in an effort to improve the state of nutrition in Tanzania and Africa in general.

Speaking to The Citizen, Prof Mamiro suggested that leaders should prepare television and radio jingles on nutrition regarding what to eat; who should be given what; and which foods are available in our communities.

“The government should support school feeding programmes which improve nutrition and attentiveness in schools – thereby also curbing absenteeism,’’ Prof Mamiro suggests.

Data presented in the report show that there are 821 million undernourished people in the world. About 257 million of them are in Africa – with a whopping 237 million of whom are in sub-Sahara Africa.

In any case, the problem is more pronounced in Western Africa, followed by Central Africa.

The report blames changes in seasonal rainfall patterns – such as late and/or early start of the rainy seasons – for adversely affecting the growth of crops and the availability of pastures for livestock. All this have potentially significant implications for food security and nutrition.

“Within-season changes have also been observed in other parts of Ghana, northern Tanzania and the Nigerian savannah,’’ the report says.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Citizen, the FAO Regional Representative for Africa, Mr Abebe Haile-Gabriel, said a majority of the poor in Africa reside in rural areas where they make a living from lowly-productive agricultural activities.

Revealing that efforts are ongoing to help countries in Africa to share knowledge and experiences on how to improve agricultural productivity and curb hunger, Mr Haile-Gabriel said: “there have been continuous efforts in facilitating experience-sharing and mutual learning on good practices within Africa – but, also, between African countries and those in South America and Asia.’’