By Byron Mutingwende
It is government’s priority to ensure that food is available at all times in sufficient quantities and qualities in terms of variety, diversity, nutrient content and safety to meet people’s dietary needs, it has emerged.
Speaking during a press conference to commemorate the Global Day for Action on Nutrition in Zimbabwe, AncikariaChigumira, the deputy director of nutrition services in the ministry of health and child care decried the fact that foods consumed by most households lack diversity and are largely unbalanced with a dominance of carbohydrates over protein, fruits and vegetables.
“The major nutrition challenges in Zimbabwe are chronic malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Nearly one in three children under the age of five years is stunted (being too short for age). The stunting rate has fallen from 35% (2009) to 27. 6% (MICS, 2014), largely due to the promotion of integrated community health programmes that the country is currently implementing. However, more needs to be done to accelerate the global World Health
Assembly target of 40% reduction by 2025,” Chigumira said.
She added that Zimbabwe is experiencing a double burden of malnutrition with increase in the prevalence of overweight.
“About 4% of children under the age of five years were overweight (MICS, 2014) and 21% of women of child bearing age being overweight and women in urban areas were more likely to be overweight than their rurtal counterparts (MMS, 2012).”
The country promotes breastfeeding for the first six months and continued breastfeeding for up to 24 months but present studies have shown that just below half of the population can exclusively breastfeed their infants (41%) and the mean duration of breastfeeding is only 17 months.
The nutritionist said that micronutrient deficiencies remain a major public health problem and that according to the latest micronutrient survey, nearly 32% of children under five and 26% of women of child bearing age are anaemic.
The health ministry is currently promoting healthy eating and lifestyles to address the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases by advocating for the minimum consumption of sodium, alcohol and fats well as encouraging people to consume diversified, locally-produced food. It also emerged that there was need to ensure that locally-produced and imported food was evaluated for safety before consumption.
In a renewed effort to eliminate all forms of malnutrition, a movement bringing together governments, civil society, the United Nations, donors, businesses and researches has been formed that has come tpo be known as Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative.
Food and Nutrition Council (focal point for SUN Movement) multi-sectoral coordination officer KudzaiMukudoka-Mudukuti said in an effort to resuscitate food and nutrition security committees, a community-based food and nutrition security model is being piloted in the country’s four districts with the objective of establishing them at ward and village levels as well as identifying context specific drivers of stunting.
She said the formation of a centralized food and nutrition information system will act as a feedback mechanism that will enable the committees to own the information they collect, share and use it accordingly.
Mudukuti said the recent implementation of the national food fortification strategy has created a platform for interaction of the private sector with other sectors to enable the former to contribute to nutrition security.
Ambassador Mary Mubi, the senior principal director in charge of public affairs and knowledge management in the Office of the President and Cabinet said the National Nutrition Strategy (2014-18) underscores government’s commitment to ensuring nutrition security interventions that are integrated within a broader public health framework including health services, water and sanitation.
“At the level of implementation, the nutrition strategy is designed to address stunting, young child malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies in children and adults,” Mubi said.
Mubi called for evidence-based programming; collaboration and coordinated action across multiple sectors; tackling of barriers to the uptake of optimal maternal and child nutrition behavior and good governance as strategies to ensure food and nutrition security.
