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Tanzania to pay heavily for malnutrition
2008-05-07 09:25:36
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz
The country`s economy will suffer cumulative losses amounting to 6.2bn/- due to nutrition problems.
Addressing an editors` seminar in Dar es Salaam yesterday, Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre Managing Director Godwin Ndossi singled out four serious nutritional problems.
``The problems are iodine deficiency, stunting, iron deficiency and low birth weight,`` he said.
He said a study based on scientific assumptions and available data had revealed that Tanzania as a nation would lose a total of 6,215bn/- in between 2006 and 2015.
He said the poor nutrition background facing millions of children had exposed the country to massive negative gains in terms of lost future wages caused by iodine deficiency, lost worker productivity due to iron deficiency anemia and increasing numbers of stunted people resulting from low birth weight.
Dr Ndossi said low birth weight was not good for Tanzania because it created a sanctuary for more stunted persons and reduced their cognitive ability.
He suggested priority interventions including promoting better child growth, strengthening of micronutrient supplementation and promotion of sustainable food-based strategies.
Hilda Missano, also from the Centre, stressed the importance of breastfeeding in the first two years as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), particularly exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months.
``Appropriate feeding has a positive outcome on nutritional status and thus has an impact in intellectual performance and mortality rate,``she said.
Earlier, Ayub Rioba from the University of Dar es Salaam`s Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication (IJMC) said the fact that over 40 per cent of the country’s populace was exposed to malnutrition was likely to endanger the country`s way of governance.
``We shouldn`t be surprised on learning that the country is being led by stunted leaders who were malnourished, that is why some of them do sign strange contracts,`` said Rioba.
Dr Johannes Hougeveen of the World Bank underlined the importance of boosting education and sustaining high growth rates as a way of curbing malnutrition.
He also stressed on the importance of promoting investments in provision of micro-nutrients, saying: ``This is one of the most rewarding investments in Tanzania.``
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