Women's nutrition: UNICEF is sounding the alarm, especially in Africa
Women and children rest in beds at the nutrition unit of Kelafo health center in the town of Kelafo, 120 kilometers from the city of Gode, Ethiopia, on April 7, 2022. AFP - EDUARDO SOTERAS
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The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is sounding the alarm in a report entitled “Unnourished and forgotten: A global nutrition crisis for adolescent girls and women”.
A document unveiled before International Women's Day (March 8) and which highlights food crises, particularly in Africa, and their short, medium and long-term consequences.
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“
More than one billion adolescent girls and women suffer from undernutrition (including underweight and short stature), essential micronutrient deficiencies and anemia [1].
»
This is one of the many conclusions that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) draws from a major global report on the nutritional status of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years, for UNICEF).
A report that is based on “
data […] in more than 190 countries and territories, which represents more than 90% of adolescent girls and women in the world
”.
Acute malnutrition particularly marked in East Africa
On reading this study, the situation is particularly worrying in two areas of the planet.
“
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa concentrate 68% of adolescent girls and women with underweight and 60% of adolescent girls and women suffering from anemia
,”
UNICEF points out in an analytical summary
.
Among the 12 countries most affected by the worsening (+25%) of this food and nutritional crisis – according to comparative surveys of 2020 and 2022 – ten are African.
The situation is particularly marked in East Africa with five countries, especially Ethiopia.
In West and Central Africa, one in two women aged 15 to 49 suffered from anemia
Moreover, while the nutrition of adolescent girls and women is poor in all areas, some are more affected than others, such as in West and Central Africa.
In these two sub-regions combined, as in South Asia, 49% of women aged 15 to 49 (or 61 million West and Central African women) suffered from anemia in 2019, compared to 33% in Africa Eastern and Southern (46 million).
Unicef insists on the fact that the current world food crisis has accentuated this situation almost everywhere.
But she emphasizes two other parts of the African continent: “
The study we conducted in the countries of Eastern and Southern Africa revealed that four out of five pregnant and breastfeeding women were in a situation of insecurity following the pandemic (of Covid-19), and that during this period, more than two thirds had reduced their consumption of foods belonging to at least one food group.
»
“This crisis could have lasting consequences for future generations”
This food situation thus has direct consequences on births: "
73% of all infants with low birth weight and 74% of all children suffering from stunted growth live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
»
Finally, Unicef recalls that poor nutrition is transmitted from generation to generation.
“
If the international community does not act urgently, this crisis could have lasting consequences for future generations
”, concludes Catherine Russell, Director General of the institution, in a press release.
[1] Anemia is an abnormal drop in the level of hemoglobin in the blood.
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