MALNUTRITION is the inability to feed right or the
absence of a balanced diet in the food intake of an individual. By this, it’s
not enough to eat but to take food that has the right nutritional contents
requirement of the body.
Indeed, a balanced diet is one that gives the body the
nutrition it needs to function properly. Child malnutrition, therefore, occurs
when a child lacksrequired nutritional content in all his or her childhood
daily food intake.
Malnutrition is estimated to contribute over one-third of
all child deaths, although it is rarely listed as the direct cause. Yet lack of
access to highly nutritious foods, especially in the present context of rising
food prices, is a common cause of malnutrition. Poor feeding practices, such as
inadequate breastfeeding, offering the wrong foods, and not ensuring that the
child gets enough nutritious food, contribute to malnutrition.
According to the United Nations International Children
Fund (UNICEF) about 1.7 million Nigerian children under the age of five years
are severely and acutely malnourished, accounting for a tenth of the global
total.
Nearly 1,000 Nigerian children die of malnutrition-related causes every
day with a total of 361,000 each year as acute malnutrition also leads to
stunting of children, thereby causing life-long physical limitations and
reduction in intellectual capacity.
Nonetheless, some of the leading causes of malnutrition
generally include poverty and lack of information or absolute ignorant among
others. During the last two decades, for instance, the number of people
affected by extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa has nearly doubled. Poverty
alone does not lead to malnutrition, but it seriously affects the availability
of adequate amounts of nutritious food for the most vulnerable populations.
Over 90 per cent of malnourished people live in developing countries.
Other certain illnesses and infections, such as
tuberculosis, measles, and diarrhea are directly linked to acute malnutrition.
A combination of disease and malnutrition weakens the metabolism creating a
vicious cycle of infection and undernourishment, leading to vulnerability to
illness. HIV and AIDS have become a leading cause of acute malnutrition in
developing countries. A child infected with HIV is more vulnerable to acute
malnutrition than a healthy child.
Conflicts have a direct impact on food security,
drastically compromising access to food. Often forced to flee as violence
escalates, people uprooted by conflict lose access to their farms and
businesses, or other means of local food production and markets. Abandoned
fields and farms no longer provide food to broader distribution circuits.
In line with UN studies in over 40 developing countries,
the decline in agricultural production caused either directly or indirectly by
climate change could dramatically increase the number of people suffering from
hunger in the coming years.
More so, water is synonymous with life. Lack of potable
water, poor sanitation, and dangerous hygiene practices increase vulnerability
to infectious and water-borne diseases, which are direct causes of acute
malnutrition.
Recently, world leaders pledged more than $4billion,
about N796 billion to global nutrition programmes and committed to save 20
million children from malnutrition at Nutrition for Growth, a pre-G8 event, in
London.
Conscious efforts are therefore advocated including
prioritizing the 1,000-day window: to save about3.1 million children who
estimatedly die every year due to malnutrition. An additional 165 million
children who manage to survive malnutrition in their early years experience
stunted growth and cognitive development, undermining their future productivity
and income.
In addition, most pregnant women living in these
countries cannot access nutrition services until the sixth month of their
pregnancies, if at all. As a result, their children start their lives already
malnourished.
Malnutrition, hence robs individuals of up to 10 per cent
of their annual earnings and cost African countries up to 11 per cent of their
annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Though the good news is, malnutrition
solutions offer sound investments for countries’ futures. However, many
national nutrition plans are only 20 per cent funded. Countries must start
prioritizing nutrition programmes within their national budgets, so as to
sustain commitment and reduction of malnutrition locally.
It is gratifying to note that Nigeria recognised the role
of nutrition as a development issue and committed to addressing malnutrition
with adoption of a National Health Strategic Development Plan which recognises
nutrition as an important component. To recognise the multi-sectorality of
nutrition, the National Policy on Food and Nutrition and National Plan of
Action (2004) were established to ensure implementation of the policy was
coordinated with clear roles and responsibilities for each related sector.
Though Nigeria has updated its 2004 National Plan of
Action on Food and Nutrition that agreed upon common results and includes a
Monitoring and Evaluation framework thus aligningefforts at increasing coverage
of specific nutrition interventions including the Community-based Management of
Acute Malnutrition (CMAM),in addition to, promotion of high-energy food and
food fortification by local enterprises.
We urge governments at all levels to internalize the
workings and framework of the recently developed home-based treatment for acute
malnutrition which is improving the lives of hundreds of children annually
based on Ready-to-use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) which has revolutionized the
treatment of severe malnutrition cases, because RUTF is ready-to-use paste
devoid of accidental contamination and Nigeria can take advantage of that in
curbing child malnutrition in the country.
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