Banking on Nutrition

Children who lack these key nutrients during the 1,000 days between conception and the age of two become stunted permanently.. According to data from the African Development Bank, statistics from two years ago show that two out of five of the world’ s stunted children under the age of five were living in Africa. Africa is the only region in the world where the number…

The first 1000 days after conception are very vital in a child’s life. This is a formative stage where the child needs nutrients and protection to enable them to thrive. Children who lack these key nutrients during the 1,000 days between conception and the age of two become stunted permanently.

This also makes them more predisposed to diseases as they are weaker.

According to data from the African Development Bank (AfDB), statistics from two years ago show that two out of five of the world’s stunted children under the age of five were living in Africa. This is an increase from the 2017 data that showed that only over one-third of five children were stunted.

Africa is the only region in the world where the number of stunted children has risen in the past several years. This is not a good sign, especially in the wake of the global pandemics mutating and becoming more viral as days go by. Against this backdrop, AfDB has called for action to accelerate nutrition targets amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The African continent has the potential to become a powerhouse of productivity in the 21st century, states a report by the AfDB dubbed, ‘The Banking on Nutrition Partnership Progress Report 2015 – 2020’. However, the report says that Africa cannot regain and sustain strong rates of economic growth, integrate its burgeoning youth population, or meet World Health Assembly and Sustainable Development Goals targets without addressing its high rate of stunting and its effect on the economy.

A United Nations report on addressing nutrition challenges in Africa shows that climate change continues to impose agronomic and climatic challenges to the agricultural systems in Africa, especially to those of smallholder farmers. The study recommends domesticating indigenous germplasm, which is diverse and resilient to biotic and abiotic stress.

“Unfortunately, most of Africa’s indigenous crops are poorly studied because limited investments have been made to research and development of indigenous crops. Therefore, they have been dubbed as “orphan, neglected and underutilized crops,” the report reads in part.

Earlier, a high-level panel discussion was organized by the AfDB. This panel discussion’s debate was based on lessons learned, experiences, and achievements of the Banking on Nutrition Partnership since its inception five years ago.

“The Bank is relentless in pursuing bold targets to unlock Africa’s human and economic potential. It is our aim to inspire other actors to recognize nutrition as central to that agenda,” said Dr Beth Dunford, Vice President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex, AfDB, in her opening address. “We need urgent action from all sectors to rise and renew commitment towards nutrition to help speed up the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerate the achievement of nutrition targets,” she added.

Malnutrition continues to stifle generations of Africans of the chance to grow to their full physical and cognitive potential, hugely impacting health outcomes and economic development. Therefore, the Banking on Nutrition Partnership aims to generate long-term economic growth for Africa by investing in “Grey Matter Infrastructure.”

In 2020, AfDB states that 61.4 million African children were registered as stunted. Africa is the only region where the number of stunted children has risen, and 40% of all stunted children in the world live on the African continent.

To reduce stunting and malnutrition, African countries need to provide nutritional security through improving locally adapted nutritious but neglected, under-researched or orphan African food crops.

This involves taking a bold step of working on edible crops and trees with inherent challenges of non-availability of reliable cultivation and production data, nutritional quality data, breeding technologies, and data on local and regional markets and value chains.

This, therefore, needs an intentional move towards addressing these challenges, and it is a positive move that African countries are now seeing the need to invest in the nutritional value of their citizens.

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The Banking on Nutrition Partnership is a prime example of African leadership in health and nutrition. “When we have a practical result-driven success story based on partnership, it is important to showcase it,” said Zouera Youssoufou, CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation.

It is also important for countries to form partnerships to incorporate nutrition more deliberately as part of a comprehensive protective wall of immunity around people from the inside and out.

There have been reported successes within partnerships through numerous initiatives and programs such as support for Ethiopia’s Seqota Declaration – a commitment to end stunting in children under two by 2030. In addition, the AfDB also approved $48 million in funding for the government of Ethiopia’s Multi-Sectoral Approach for Stunting Reduction Project (MASReP).

“Positive results of the Banking on Nutrition Partnership include integration of nutrition into 18% of African Development Bank projects, with 21% of project interventions prioritizing focus on women and children. The Bank also surpassed its 2025 targets of 15% and 10% nutrition-smart investments in the water, sanitation and hygiene services, also known as WASH and social protection sectors respectively,” according to a statement from AfDB’s media release adding that in its next phase, the Banking on Nutrition Partnership will prioritize 10 countries using the African Development Bank’s Grey Matter Infrastructure Investment Index, a criterion based on country rankings centred on their stunting burden and borrowing headroom.

These countries include Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Madagascar, Kenya, Burundi, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

“It will take a healthy and skilled workforce to put Africa on the recovery path after COVID-19 and, more importantly, to move the needle in transforming the continent and the quality of life of its people,” said Martha Phiri, AfDB Director of Human Capital, Youth and Skills Department.

Therefore, for Africa to improve on its productivity, it needs a healthy people. Therefore, it is important to ensure that this is strengthened right from the start when a child is born rather than wait until an outbreak comes and proves the whole continent wrong.

The time is now.

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