Ethiopia loses 50,000 infants every year

from Nazret

The first national nutrition strategy unveiled

By Abiy Demilew

Source: Capital

Faced with a heavy disease burden caused by prevalent maternal and child undernourishment, Ethiopia Thursday launched its first-ever National Nutrition Strategy (NNS) to ensure its people live a healthy and productive life.

“The time is now for us to focus our attention and endeavours to reverse one of the most serious health concerns facing our nation,” said Minister of Health Teodros Adhanom, at the launch of the integrated multi-sectoral effort aimed at alleviating the persistent problem of malnutrition in the East African country.
“With this Strategy and other complementary strategies, we are once and for all ensuring that future generations can fulfill their potential and lead healthy and prosperous lives,” he added.

Malnutrition, according to health authorities in the country, is the greatest underlying cause of childhood mortality in Ethiopia. Approximately 53 per cent of all deaths among children under the age of five are related to malnutrition. In human terms, this translates into roughly 374 child deaths every day.

The launch of NNS in Ethiopia comes in the wake of new evidence from ‘The Lancet’ Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition, showing that malnutrition accounts for more than 3.5 million child deaths every year worldwide.

‘The Lancet’ is the world’s leading independent general medical journal that brings international attention to the critical role of early nutrition in global health and economic growth of nations.
In economic terms, according to the latest series, Ethiopia will lose an estimated 144 billion Birr (about US$15 billion) due to the economic consequences of stunting, and iodine and iron deficiencies between 2006 and 2015, if the nutrition status remained unchanged. If action is taken, Ethiopia stands to save 46 billion Birr.

“The Lancet Series analyses the effectiveness and potential impact of nutrition-related interventions and policy options. This Series offers a unique roadmap for improving nutrition and the well-being of the world’s poorest women and children,” said Dr. Robert Black of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead author of ‘The Lancet’ Series.

Speaking at the NNS launch here, Black said: “Worldwide, policymakers and donors must respond to these findings if they hope to put an end to the destructive cycle of undernutrition and poverty in developing countries.”

As a comprehensive approach to eradicating malnutrition in Ethiopia, the NNS encompasses the promotion of essential nutrition actions such as breastfeeding, monitoring and promotion of child growth, enhancing maternal care practices and nutrition in emergencies.
It also covers food security activities, water and sanitation, micronutrient supplementation and fortification, and addresses the role of nutrition in HIV/AIDS and diet-related non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The Lancet has selected Ethiopia as one of its key countries for the launch of its landmark Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition. Other countries are India, Peru, Senegal, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Deupty Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Addisu Legesee, said the government has long subscribed to the goals of human development and poverty eradication as its guiding principles for development strategies and programs.

The Minister stressed the importance of fighting malnutrition as its negative impact goes beyond the individual suffering.
The second five-year plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty calls for the implementation of the NNS and nutrition program, he said.

“The implementation of NNS is considered as one of the foundations for Ethiopia’s aspirations for achieving all Millennium Development Goals,” Addisu said.

Speaking on his part Health Minister of Teodros Adhanom stated the government has embarked up on massive undertakings on the health extension program since 2004, which serves as a vehicle to bring nutrition security to household level.

Currently, he said, of the total 30,000 required health extension workers, more than 24,640 are deployed in their respective communities.
Teodros said the implementation of the National Nutrition Program is estimated to cost about 351.3 million USD for the coming five years of which the government has already secured 96.4 million USD.
Excluding over 62.1 million USD pledged by the World Bank and other sources, there is a total gap of 192.6 million USD to finance the program.

He said he was optimistic that partners, donors and UN, bilateral and private sector will manage to close the gap.
Speaking on behalf of the UN system in Ethiopia, UNICEF Ethiopia Country Representative, Bjorn Ljungqvist, said though Africa is still home to one third of the 178 million undernourished children in all developing countries, Ethiopia is making significant progress in this regard.

He said the UN family will provide unconditional support for the government’s effort to ‘end hunger and malnutrition in Ethiopia’, one of the key commitments for the new Ethiopian Millennium.
The National Nutrition strategy aims to scale up nutrition success by providing a framework to coordinate planning and programming across multiple sectors and ministries.

The Lancet’s series launched on the same day analyses the effectiveness and potential impact of nutrition-related interventions and policy options.

Senior government officials, Ambassadors, representatives of pertinent governmental and non-governmental organizations, among others, attended the launch ceremony.