Various interventions in combating malnutrition
in the country have yielded fruits. One of the achievements is the
decrease in stunting from 42 per cent in 2010 to 34.7 per cent last
year.
President Jakaya Kikwete said, while these results
were encouraging, he would like to see more efforts to completely end
the problem which hinders the wellbeing of the future generation.
He was speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday at a conference on scaling up nutrition, which he officially opened.
The President said, a number of challenges
remained in attaining a good level in the fight against malnutrition in
both children and adults.
Mr Kikwete said, among the measures that made it
possible to lower the stunting level was putting in place nutrition
focal officers in 157 district councils and employment of nutrition
officers in 25 regions.
“Increased food fortification plants from six in
2013 to 10 for wheat flour and from three to 10 for edible oil is
another step in the right direction,” said President Kikwete.
The Head of State noted that about 20 million
people are today being provided with fortified food products which
reduce the chances of getting malnutrition.
“Despite this move, we still have about 2.7
million children under five years who are stunted, 58 per cent of them
lives in the 10 regions with inadequate key nutrition interventions. And
if the status quo is maintained, we would be causing deaths to about
580,687 children by 2015,” he said.
However, he said, if appropriate measures were taken, 120,633 children would be saved.
For his part, deputy minister for Health and
Social Welfare, Dr Kebwe Steven Kebwe, called for more nutrition
education, especially to mothers.
“Poor nutrition is a silent killer and the global
statistics are scary. We need our people to be well oriented on proper
eating,” he said.
The UN Resident Coordinator Alvaro Rodriguez said,
ending malnutrition needs more than financial support. “Nutrition is
not all about moral issues or an ethical issue it actually makes
economic sense even in the loss of productivity in the economy,” he
said.See More
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