AlertNet discusses malnutrition with Eric Alain Ategbo, the nutrition manager for the U.N Children's Fund in Niger
DAKAR (AlertNet) - Niger’s government has warned of ‘alarming’ levels of malnutrition in the West African country which was hit by a food crisis last year.
The country’s recent National Nutrition Survey revealed a global acute malnutrition rate of 12.3 percent among children under five years old, with levels above the World Health Organisation emergency threshold of 10 percent in seven of the country’s eight regions. Following is an AlertNet interview with Eric Alain Ategbo, the nutrition manager for the U.N Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Niger:
DO YOU SEE NIGER BEING AFFECTED ANY TIME SOON BY A CRISIS LIKE THE ONE HITTING EAST AFRICA?
Not if the revamped health system is reinforced. Aid received by Niger from its financial and technical partners was utilised to improve the overall health system’s capacity to respond to an emergency crisis…
…Since 2005, active screening, referral and case management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have been scaled up. During the 2010 nutrition crisis, some 330,000 children under five years of age suffering from SAM received treatment in 822 therapeutic feeding centres across the national network of health centres and district hospitals. The total number of children treated in 2010 represents one fifth of all children treated for SAM worldwide.
If possible to think one step further, Niger should now take actions to secure food production in the face of adverse climatic conditions.
DO MALNUTRITION RATES SHOW A DEEP AND LONG-STANDING NUTRITION PROBLEM IN NIGER?
Yes… Poverty is extreme in Niger. Having a good harvest and pastoral season has not yet positively translated into a better nutritional status of children. One must bear in mind that populations are still recovering from the 2010 food and nutrition crisis.
In addition, whether harvests are good or not, 2.1 million people are food insecure in some Niger regions. The head of the family can barely feed his family with the yields of his plantation for more than four to six months in a year. When he turns to the local market after the sale of his last crops prices of basic food commodities are soaring and his purchasing power is so insignificant that he cannot afford to buy food nutritious enough for his children to grow to their full potential.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE THEN IN NIGER?
For lasting change the Government of Niger must be supported to further enhance its health system by ensuring the availability of affordable quality health services to the remotest populations.
UNICEF Niger supports the Nigerien government to provide access to free health care for children and pregnant women through the provision of essential drugs, supply of equipment and training of human resources. Preventive measures would enable the early detection of cases before they become serious. Thus scaling up of large scale screening of malnutrition cases at the community level must be continued with the creation of therapeutic feeding centres at the hospital, health centre and community levels.
Severe malnutrition can be prevented through the implementation of adequate interventions, including the scaling up of the adoption of key family practices to prevent children to fall into the worst form of malnutrition and to combat childhood diseases that are associated with malnutrition such as diarrhoea. Breastfeeding is free, simple to use and effective but only 27 per cent of mothers exclusively breastfeed their newborn babies up to six months. The early inclusion of complementary feeding as practiced by Nigerien mothers soon after they give birth, coupled with poor feeding practices, increases the child’s probability of becoming malnourished.
If communities were aware that washing one’s hands with soap prevents many killer childhood diseases we would not have one in eight children under five years old dying.
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