Chronicle EditorAndile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
ZIMBABWE has been hailed for its efforts to end starvation and malnutrition, the Global Nutritional Report on health has said.
The report said Zimbabwe was on track to meet its set targets to end stunted growth, malnutrition and starvation in children under five years.
However, the country is facing a challenge of more children becoming overweight before the age of five years.
The Global Nutrition Report is the world’s foremost publication on the status of malnutrition around the world, tracking progress on global nutrition targets, ranging from diet-related non-communicable diseases to maternal, infant and young child nutrition.
The report provides new and expansive data highlighting the changing face of malnutrition and sheds light on new initiatives designed to respond to this greater and more diverse challenge.
Global Nutrition Report said Zimbabwe was also hailed for being on course in ending “wasting” in children, which is rapid weight loss due to malnutrition.
24 percent of Zimbabwe’s children under five suffer from stunted growth, while nearly four percent and three percent of children were overweight and wasted respectively.
Zimbabwe’s population of children under five is 2,5 million.
The report said while countries were making efforts to curb hunger across the African continent and globally, the burden of malnutrition remained unacceptably high.
“Africa is the region by far the hardest hit by overlapping forms of malnutrition. Of 41 countries that struggle with three forms of malnutrition – childhood stunting, anaemia in women of reproductive age and overweight among women – 30 are in Africa, or 73 percent,” reads the report.
The report said significant steps are being made to address malnutrition. Globally, stunting among children under five years fell from 32,6 percent in 2000 to 22,2 percent in 2017. While stunting in children under five years of age is declining at a global level, the numbers in Africa are increasing. According to the report, driven by population growth, the number of stunted children in Africa has steadily increased from 50,6 million in 2000 to 58,7 million in 2017. – @andile_tshuma
Online Reporter