[pronut-hiv] Let's be realistic and stop this 'prescription' approach.

["dchanje" <dchanje@cats-net.com>]

Dear Colleagues,

I have had a quick glance at the World Bank report on Nutrition Strategy,
the summary of which has already been posted on this forum.

I am just amazed that there does not seem to have been any Africans among
the people who were consulted during the process of writing this report, and yet the recommendations being made are largely meant to be adopted by
Sub-Saharan countries (and East Asian countries, but these were
represented). 

However laudable the report may be, and however good the recommendations may be, I contend that these may not have impact on problems of malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa, because the entire process is ignoring the Africans. We have a lot of African specialists on the subject of Nutrition, who I believe should be involved in the process of mapping out the solutions for nutrition problems on the continent. Together with our well-meaning colleagues from other parts of the world, we can achieve a lot, but for our colleagues to 'prescribe' some solutions to us, is really unacceptable. It has failed before, and continues to fail on many other problems (economic, etc). If nutrition issues are indeed beginning to get the 'attention' they truly deserve, we should not let this opportunity pass by ignoring to bring on-board specialists from the countries that are affected by malnutrition.
Let us be realistic and stop this 'prescription' approach. 

Doreen Chanje,
mobile: +255 (0)748 76 33 66
Tel: +255 (22) 266 6570
Fax: +255 (22) 266 7434
email: dchanje@cats-net.com; doreenchanje@yahoo.co.uk
 

-----Ruth Hope wrote:


I agree with Stephanie.

While donors are focusing on the macro in agriculture -- the "faltering of
the Green Revolution" and increasing productivity and agricultural
employment -- there is huge need for policies concerned with diversification
of household crops to enhance diet, and for promotion of agricultural
practices that reduce the amount of labour required for families affected by
AIDS, specifically woman and child headed households.

Agricultural policy has to be linked to  alleviating malnutrition and
providing for the nutritional needs of people living with HIV.

Yours,  Ruth Hope
Independent Consultant
USA

----- "Stephanie White" wrote:

I always find it interesting (and disturbing) that "the need to focus on
nutrition" and the attention paid to malnutrition is so disconnected from
agriculture.  This article says "Improving nutrition requires focused
action by parents and communities, backed by local and national action in
health and public services, especially water and sanitation."  Well, where
is the nutrition supposed to come from?  Is it always assumed that
nutritional support has to come from outside the community?  Shouldn't the
preferred way to support community well-being, which includes but is not
limited to nutrition security, be about supporting people to do things for
themselves, and should rest upon the established foundations in
communities?  Throughout Africa, this means agriculture.  And I mean
small-holder subsistence agriculture.  For people to feed themselves is
preferable to external support, isn't it?  I suggest that instead of
looking at communities as needing sectoral interventions here or there, we
begin to look at overall community well-being.  What are the things a
community, or for that matter an individual, needs to be healthy and whole?

I argue that sustainable nutritional security relies on sustainable food
security, which, in turn, relies on communities having, and holding the
power to direct, their own community food and agriculture systems.
Agriculture (first and foremost sustainable, smallholder agriculture) has
got to be a part of these discussions.  I look forward to hearing
feedback....Stephanie White


---ProNut-HIV wrote:
> 'Africa Loses 3 Per Cent GDP to Malnutrition'
>
> This Day (Lagos)
>
> March 3, 2006
> Etim Imisim
> Abuja
>
> A new report by the World Bank has warned that malnutrition is costing
> poor countries up to 3 per cent of their yearly GDP while malnourished
> children stand the risk of losing more than 10 per cent of their
> lifetime earnings potential.
>
> The report also added that malnutrition increases the risks of HIV
> infection and reduces the number of children and mothers who survive
> malaria.
>
> A statement from the bank in Washington added that malnutrition and
> HIV/AIDS reinforce each other, so the success of HIV/AIDS programmes in
> Africa depends in part on paying more attention to nutrition.
>
> The report, released by the bank on Tuesday said that malnutrition has
> for long been recognised as a barrier to economic growth but the
> development community and governments in the developing world never
> found it necessary to tackle it.
>
> A statement, citing the report, said developing countries that invest in
> better nutrition for their children get high returns on their spending,
> "A group of the world's leading development economists,including three
> Nobel Laureates, concluded in a 2004 study known as the Copenhagen
> Consensus, that nutrition investments were one of the 'best buys' that
> developing countries could make in reducing poverty and improving
> economic growth," the statement continued. But contrary to popular
> perceptions, malnutrition is not simply the result of having too little
> food to eat as many children living in households with plenty to eat are
> still under-weight or stunted because of misguided infant feeding and
> care practices, poor access to health services, or poor sanitation.
>
> The report noted that malnutrition rates are falling in Asia while it is
> on the rise in Sub-Saharan Africa.
>
> However, this is not the case in the heavily populated South Asian
> countries--India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan where the
> under-nutrition rates of 38 to 51 percent are much higher than those of
> 26 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa.
>
> "We certainly knew that large numbers of malnourished children lived in
> South Asia, but what this report now shows us is the shocking fact that
> the rates of under-nutrition in South Asia are nearly double those in
> Sub-Saharan Africa," says Praful Patel, World Bank Vice President for
> the South Asia Region.
>
>
>
> The challenge facing the world, the report noted, is to let malnutrition
> continue to perpetuate poverty "as the global community did with
> HIV/AIDS for more than a decade, or to finally put nutrition at the
> center of development so that a wide range of economic and social
> improvements that depend on nutrition can be realized."
>
> "We see growing evidence that in both middle-income and poorer
> countries, that there are innovative ways to improve nutrition out
> there," says Paul Gertler, Chief Economist of the World Bank's Human
> Development Network, and Professor of Health Economics and Finance at
> the University of California, Berkeley.
>