Chronicle Editor
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
PARENTS and guardians have been encouraged to improve their children’s diet after a Zimbabwe Livelihood Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) 2024 report revealed that only two percent of children aged six to 23 months in Matabeleland South received a minimum acceptable diet.
According to the report, five percent of children met the minimum dietary diversity while 31 percent met the minimum meal frequency.
The stunting rate in the province was 27 percent, a development attributed to poor diet.
The 2024 ZimLAC Rural Livelihoods Assessment (RLA) was conducted amid the 2023/2024 El Nino-induced drought.
ZimLAC recently rolled out dissemination meetings to gather feedback from communities on the findings of the original assessment and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions made to address food and nutrition insecurity in communities.
The dissemination exercise involved Government officials, development partners, chiefs and village heads, among other stakeholders.
Speaking at a Matabeleland South ZimLAC dissemination meeting recently, Food and Nutrition Council director for programmes, Ms Yvonne Mavhunga, said there is a need for communities to be educated on best feeding practices.
“It’s not that people don’t have access to healthy food but it’s just the feeding practices that they had adopted. It has more to do with how mothers have evolved in terms of feeding their children. They are going for certain options and preferences, which are unfortunately unhealthy. People are now opting for convenient food preferences for their children such as junk food, which doesn’t take long to prepare.
“That’s why we have a very high rate of stunting, which is at 26,9 percent. The growth of the child becomes redundant. They don’t attain their brain and height growth causing stunting. Children need to be fed properly so that they gain their maximum potential height and the brains develop fully,” she said.
Ms Mavhunga said communities should come up with local healthy solutions for feeding practices such as Manutro, which incorporates small grains and mopane worms, which help improve child nutrition.
In Matabeleland South, only two percent of children aged six to 23 months received the Minimum Acceptable Diet, a decrease from four percent recorded last year.
According to the ZimLAC report, the minimum acceptable diet of two percent is way below the national target of 25 percent. Only 4,8 percent of children consumed diversified diets while 51 percent were not consuming fruits and vegetables, which has a negative impact on children diet quality outcomes.
“There is a need to come up with innovative ways of disseminating nutrition messaging such as digitising messaging targeting the population. Stunting in the province was 27 percent, which is very high. Various interventions to reduce stunting need to be implemented. These include improving access to food during the first 1 000 days, social behaviour change programmes, nutrition sensitive social protection programmes and sanitation conditions. Efforts to address childhood under-nutrition, micro-nutrient deficiencies and over nutrition need to be integrated to achieve global nutrition targets,” reads the report.
WHO recommends that children aged six to 23 months be fed a variety of foods to ensure nutrient needs are met. A diet lacking in diversity can increase the risk of micro-nutrient deficiencies, which may have a damaging effect on children’s physical and cognitive development.
Poor-quality diets are among the greatest obstacles to children’s survival, growth, development and learning. During the first two years of life, diets lacking in essential vitamins and minerals can irreversibly harm a child’s rapidly growing body and brain and increase the risk of stunting, wasting and micro-nutrient deficiencies.
Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) is a composite indicator of minimum meal frequency and dietary diversity. It reflects the proportion of children who receive adequate diverse age-appropriate foods. Adequate nutrition is essential for the growth and development of children aged six to 23 months.
A Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is a proxy indicator for adequate micro-nutrient density. Both breastfed and non-breastfed infants are expected to consume at least five of the seven food groups that are recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Minimum Meal Frequency (MMF) is a proxy for a child’s energy requirements and is the proportion of breastfed and non-breastfed children six to 23 months of age who receive solid, semi-solid, or soft-foods or milk feeds, the minimum number of times or more.
Meanwhile, foods high in sugar, fat or salt can set children on the path to unhealthy food preferences, being overweight and diet-related diseases.
The report showed that at least six million people were likely to be food insecure owing to the drought experienced across the region this season.
This RLA, the 24th since inception, was guided by the urgent need for Government to determine the impact of the drought on households in rural areas and provide evidence to inform decision-making.
The assessment will also ensure the timely development of holistic and robust response programmes.
Data from the annual livelihood assessments is critical for informing the development of holistic food and nutrition programmes to ensure that no one and no place is left behind. — @DubeMatutu
Online Reporter