Food security is key for the development of any nation

Pippa Bradford

As the world marks the World Food Day today, with the theme United Against Hunger, we must also unite to fight under-nutrition, which is closely linked to food insecurity.

Globally, 195 million children under the age of five years are chronically undernourished, with 90 per cent of them in Africa and Asia.

Under-nutrition affects millions of children worldwide, permanently robbing them of a future. It affects a child’s mental and physical development with lifelong consequences. In the first two years of life, chronic under-nutrition can mean reduced cognitive development, poorer school performance, and lower economic productivity and income earning potential during adulthood. Ensuring that children have a healthy start to life is, therefore, investing for the future.

In the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya, Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) levels continue to be alarmingly high. Vulnerability due to poor nutrition has increased over time, and this has been pegged to successive drought periods, poverty, and a high disease burden, particularly HIV and infectious diseases.

The 2008/09 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) indicates high levels of GAM in the northern districts. These districts have suffered frequent and prolonged droughts that have left the region with high levels of food insecurity and this can be linked to the high malnutrition levels.

The target for achieving the MDGs is already mid-way, but nutrition related MDGs are far from being achieved. According to the 2008/09 KDHS infant mortality rate is at 52 per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality is 74 deaths per 1,000 live births. This means that one of 19 children born in Kenya die before their first birthday and one in 14 children dies before their fifth birthday. Many of these deaths could be linked to the children’s nutrition status before and after birth.

There is, therefore an urgent need to develop a proactive action to fight under-nutrition to ensure a healthy future generation. Current nutrition interventions are geared towards curative measures but it is time to address the root causes, key among them food security.

In the meantime, to address existing under-nutrition a concerted effort from relevant stakeholders is vital. In Kenya, WFP is working with the Government and other partners to fight under-nutrition before birth and after birth by providing nutrition support to pregnant and nursing mothers and children up to the age of five years.

Globally, the response to under-nutrition has evolved, and the current focus is on multi-sectoral interventions implemented at large scale through partnerships with governments, civil society and private sectors. In Kenya, the aim will be to adequately address the various causes of malnutrition, at a scale that will ensure impact at population level, and thus enabling the probability that the nutrition related millennium development goals would be met.

This means developing policies that address the issue of malnutrition from a holistic perspective in order to tackle crosscutting issues and to ensure good nutritional status across the life cycle. It means a more integrated approach through multi-sectoral partnerships that are geared towards finding lasting solutions to address under-nutrition. Successful interventions also need to be replicated so as to achieve the required impact at a national level. This includes a clear policy framework and institutional capacity to implement and monitor sustainable nutrition programmes that respond to the multi-sectoral dimensions of nutrition problems.

　

The writer is Deputy Country Director, World Food Programme-Kenya