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Saturday, December 29, 2018
According to Rikke Le Kirkegaard, a UNICEF health care specialist based in Dar es Salaam, only eight per cent of Tanzanian children receive what is considered a minimum acceptable diet, implying that only about 640,000 out of the country’s 8 million children under the age of 5 have access to proper nutrition.
Citing the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey‘s Key Findings Report for 2015–2016, Le Kirkegaard adds that one in three children under five in Tanzania are stunted due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, which are needed for growth and development. In the worst affected areas of the country, this number rises to almost one in two.
The resulting phenomenon is known as ‘hidden hunger’, where the quality of food that the children eat does not meet their nutrient requirements, leading to stunted growth and a number of health issues later in life.
So the question is, how many of Tanzania’s children are receiving adequate nutrition? The World Health Organisation defines malnutrition as a deficiency, excess, or imbalance in a person’s intake of energy or nutrients. This covers 2 broad groups of conditions?—?undernutrition?—?which includes stunting , wasting (low weight to height ratio), underweight and micro-nutrient deficiencies, and overnutrition or hyperalimentation?—?an oversupply of nutrients that leads to obesity and related lifestyle diseases.
According to the 2015–16 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, only 9% of Tanzanian children aged 6 months to 2 years receive a minimum acceptable diet, with the figure dropping to an alarming 4% for children who are not breastfed.
To put this in context, 34% of children under 5 nationally?—?25% in urban areas and 38% in rural Tanzania?—?are moderately to severely stunted according to the Tanzania Malnutrition Fact Sheet 2016.
This relatively high figure is attributed to the lack of a balanced diet in many of the country’s urban households. Meals are predominately starch?—?based, with diets dominated by maize?—?from which ugali, a common staple, is derived?—?as well as millet or cassava flour, rice, and pulses, mainly beans. The diet often lacks high-quality animal and plant-based proteins, vegetables and fruit.
However, malnutrition among infants in Tanzania is on the decline, with a UNICEF report looking at under-nutrition levels from 1992-2015 showing that the country has done much to curb malnutrition:
Significant progress was made in the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age between 1992 and 2015. Stunting or chronic malnutrition decreased from 50 to 34 per cent, acute malnutrition from 7 to 5 per cent and underweight from 24 to 14 per cent?—?UNICEF Tanzania The data shows that Le Kirkegaard’s assertion that only 8% of Tanzanian children get the minimum levels of nutrition that they need is only slightly off, with the official figure standing at 9%. This is a sharp decline from 2014, when a UNICEF survey found that 20% of Tanzanian children aged between 6 months and 2 years were receiving adequate nutrition.
The situation is made worse by a prevailing food crisis, with data from Twaweza showing that at least half (51%) of Tanzanian households reported in early 2017 that they did not have enough food for all the household members. The crisis drove up food prices, making it harder for the poor to access the food that they would need to have a balanced diet.
Therefore, Le Kirkegaard’s statement that only eight per cent of young Tanzanian children receive what is considered a minimum acceptable diet, is TRUE.