The Cost of Hunger In Africa (COHA) Continental Report : Social and Economic Impact of Child Under nutrition

Over the past few years, the increase in global food prices, followed by the economic and financial crisis, have pushed more people into poverty, vulnerability and hunger. Even though the number of undernourished people has fallen globally by 13.2 percent from 1 billion to 868 million in the last 20 years Africa’s share in the world’s undernourished population has decreased from 35.5 percent in 1990 to 22 percent in 2019. However, this alarming rate still calls for stronger efforts to improve food security and nutrition in the continent. Stunting among children under the age of five remains a key challenge in Africa.According to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of assessing severity of malnutrition, half of African Member States have high to very high (over 30 percent) prevalence of childhood stunting. Only seven Member States have a low prevalence (less than 19percent). Based on the current status most African Member States are unlikely to reach the Malabo declaration by 2025. Childhood stunting is detrimental to the development of the grey matter among children and undermines economic productivity.The prevalence of undernourishment as shown in table 2.1 below can be attributed to persistent constraints in terms of availability and access to food due to conflicts, climate extremes and economic slowdowns, sometimes combined.