‘Africa Has Done Badly On Nutrition’
 16th OCT 2006

African countries have been given knocks for their slow response to issues relating to nutrition, Nestle Nutrition International Africa (NNIA) Board Chairperson, Professor Demetre Labadarios made this observation in Lagos. He said most governments in Africa have not identified the major focal areas where solutions to the nutrition crisis of the continent lie.

Labadarios pointed out that most African countries have failed to make women a major focal point in most of strategies aimed at addressing poverty and other nutritional problems. On the choice of women, the NNIA chairperson says, "Women are crucial to issues relating to nutrition. In fact, nutrition culture starts before and during pregnancy. All these are centred on women."

Labadarios who is also Head, Human Nutrition at the Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa notes that the situation in Africa with nutrition is likely to get worse if current trend is not upturned dramatically by most governments and related institutions. According to him, evidence across the continent has revealed the emergence of more cases of stunted growth among Africans. The implication, he says is more cases of obesity among Africans.

"Evidence has shown that children with stunted growth are seven times likely to become obese. This is an issue of serious health concern in the face of the growing incidence of communicable diseases among Africans", he said.

Meanwhile the institute is currently partnering some international organizations on researches and others activities aimed at entrenching recommended standards on nutrition by the World health Organisation (WHO). The five years old institute has kick-started scientific activities in the central and West African Region in Nigeria with a scientific meeting on "Attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) from a nutrition perspective".

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