Addressing the Poor Nutrition of Ugandan Children

Addressing the Poor Nutrition of Ugandan Children

One out of every three young children in Uganda are short for their age, according to the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS); and the incidence of poor nutritional status is highest in the relatively better off sub region of South Western Uganda.
Although poor child nutrition status is a pervasive global problem, it is mainly concentrated in a few developing countries.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) 24 developing countries account for over 80 percent of the world’s 195 million children faced with stunting. Out of the 24 countries, at least 11 are from Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Furthermore, countries in SSA have made the least progress in reducing stunting rates—from 38% to 34% between 1990 and 2008 —compared to a reduction of 40% to 29% for all developing countries. Uganda is among the developing countries with the largest population of stunted children—an estimated 2.4 million children aged less than 5 years in Uganda are stunted and this places the country at the rank of 14th—based on the ranking of countries with large populations of nutritionally challenged children.

1. Issues of maternal and child nutrition have been central to Uganda’s human development agenda. In 1999, the Government of Uganda (GoU) introduced a five year revolving Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP-I) whose objectives included the reduction of stunting rates from 38 % to 28% among children aged 5 years and below. In addition, the plan sought to provide a nationwide community growth promotion system.
2. In terms of actual indicators, the current HSSP III (2010-2015) intends to reduce stunting prevalence rate to 32 % by the end of 2015. In order to meet some of the above objectives, the GoU produced the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan 2011-2016 that outlines the various ways of dealing with malnutrition in a multi-sectoral environment.

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• Published Jul 1, 2012