Food security and nutrition face challenges caused by shocks, a rapidly changing food environment and inefficiencies in the food system. Undernutrition is widespread, and 32 percent of children under 5 years of age are stunted, while 10 percent suffer from wasting.
This is due to a combination of factors: the food children are eating is not enough food and it does not contain the nutrients they need to grow and develop. Dietary deficiencies in zinc, iodine and B-vitamins also widely affect women of reproductive age and children. Undernutrition is estimated to cost Cambodia approximately 1. In addition, overweight and obesity are increasing — 18 percent of women of reproductive age are overweight or obese mostly older women , while 14 percent are underweight mostly younger women.
Seventy-nine percent of the Cambodian population lives in rural areas and they are on the front-line of a changing climate.
Floods and droughts frequently threaten the food system and will increase in frequency and intensity in the future. Cambodia is currently ranked the eighth most vulnerable country to natural disasters, so supporting communities to prepare for and respond to disasters is key to ensure they can access nutritious foods year-round.
Since , the World Food Programme has supported Cambodian families to meet their emergency needs and enhance the long-term food and nutrition security of vulnerable households and communities. WFP has increasingly worked with the Government of Cambodia to strengthen capacities and systems that can be fully nationally owned.
Our goal is that all Cambodians can meet their nutrition needs and the country can reach SDG2 — a world with Zero Hunger by WFP works with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the National Social Protection Council to promote access to quality education, nutritious diets and social assistance for children at pre-primary and primary school.
The school feeding programme will transition to a nationally owned home-grown school meals model that sources ingredients from local farmers, incorporates food quality and safety, encourages community ownership, and supports local economies. Kenya made progress in reducing stunting in children from a high of 33 per cent in to 26 per cent in , even though the stunting rates are still high.
The country's statistics show that stunting affects one in every four children under five years. This means that out of 7. The incidence of poverty is higher in rural areas and is estimated at 40 per cent. Approximately 80 per cent of the Kenyan population lives in rural areas.
This presents a higher burden of food deprivation among rural communities, which results in undernutrition. It was further estimated that This can be attributed to low cognitive skills. Child undernutrition affects health, education and productivity differently," the brief discloses. The most pressing form of malnutrition in Kenya is protein-energy malnutrition, which largely affects infants, preschool and school children according to Dr Bashir Issak, the head of the department of family health at the Ministry of Health MoH.
Dr Issak discloses that currently, the most urgently needed micronutrients by Kenyans include iron, folic acid, vitamin A, iodine and zinc. Their absence is detrimental to growth, health and immunity. Dr Veronica Kirogo, the nutrition director at the Health ministry, says that over half Dr Issak further explains that malnutrition places children at increased risk of morbidity and mortality and is also related to impaired mental and physical development.
The ministry believes that every shilling invested in high impact nutrition intervention has the potential to generate Sh2, shilling in economic returns. Nutrition experts are of the opinion that if the country implements various measures to reduce child undernutrition, there are potential savings to the economy based on a number of policy scenarios. These scenarios are constructed based on the estimated net present value of the costs associated with undernutrition of the children born each year from to It also assumes that population growth would maintain the pace reported in By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.
As this scenario is highly unlikely, its main purpose is to establish a baseline to which any improvements in the nutritional situation are compared to determine the potential savings in economic costs. Under this baseline scenario, the cost of undernutrition could increase by up to 4. She agrees it is an ambitious target, considering that the average annual rate of stunting reduction between and was estimated at 0.
The underweight rate is set to be reduced from 11 per cent in to 5. Kenya is a signatory to the Malabo Declaration on nutrition security to which she committed to end child stunting by bringing the prevalence down to 10 per cent and underweight to 5 per cent by This requires an annual reduction of 1.
This necessitates urgent action and recommitment to enhance investment in nutrition. It represents an important national and regional challenge for which countries in the region could join hands.
If this happens, experts believe that the cost could decrease by up to 65 per cent by compared to the values in , with annual average savings estimated at Sh The Kenya Vision goal of reducing stunting to In addition, urban populations are subject to illness and disease and may lack adequate water, sanitation, and hygiene WFP ; Concern Worldwide Moreover, child mortality declined much more slowly in urban than in rural areas of Kenya between and , perhaps because of the deplorable living conditions in urban settlements Kimani- Murage et al.
Agriculture is considered to have considerable potential to increase household food security and nutrition. Although evidence on the impact of agricultural technologies on relevant outcomes is limited Kabunga, Dubois, and Qaim , some studies show promising results in Kenya.
A program in western Kenya promoting the production of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, which are high in vitamin A, led to increased consumption of vitamin A—rich foods when combined with nutrition education and counselling Hagenimana et al. Small-scale vegetable farmers who sold produce to supermarkets consumed more calories and micro-nutrients than other farmers, owing to increased income and higher vegetable production and consumption Chege, Andersson, and Qaim A project promoting soil fertility management techniques increased crop yields and food security for participants, as measured by an increase in the number of months that food stayed in storage, relative to a control group Wanyama et al.
Smallholder dairying and pastoralism play an important role in Kenya, with significant implications for nutrition. Roughly a quarter of Kenyan households engage in small-scale dairy activities. For pastoralist households in Kenya, animal ownership is associated with household milk consumption, and as livestock holdings decrease, so does milk consumption. Milk consumption at the household level is positively associated with higher body mass index values among youth Iannotti and Lesorogol Consumption of animal-source foods by Kenyan schoolchildren has also been shown to be positively associated with height and weight gains Grillenberger et al.
In the early s, Kenyan dairy policy was revised to accommodate the needs and interests of small-scale producers Kaitibie et al. The Smallholder Dairy Commercialization Program provided training to help small-scale dairy farmers improve their productivity and marketing skills. Participating households had better food security than households in the control group: they consumed more foods rich in micro-nutrients and protein, such as red meat, milk and dairy, and pulses Bonilla et al.
However, there is reason to exercise caution—in households with diseased livestock, child growth was lower than in households with healthy livestock, suggesting that in some cases livestock ownership has both positive and negative effects Mosites et al. Kenya is also home to a number of cash transfer programs— increasingly common in developing countries—that show evidence of positive impacts on food security.
Nutrition education can help improve diet quality for children and adults in Kenya as well. A pilot project in western Kenya found that providing nutrition education to fathers and grandmothers on proper complementary feeding practices for young children raised social support for mothers and improved some types of child feeding practices Mukuria et al. The Constitution of Kenya, , states that every person has the right to be free from hunger and to have adequate food of acceptable quality GoK b.
The national Food and Nutrition Security Policy FNSP, integrated nutrition into national food security policy and described the actions needed to achieve sufficient, sustainable, and nutritious food production Mugambi, Volege, and Gichohi It provided guidance on coordinating nutrition interventions carried out by the government and other nutrition stakeholders GoK Now expired, the plan is currently being revised.
The Nutrition Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee—a network of government ministries Health, Education, Agriculture, Planning, and Labour , United Nations agencies, civil society, academic and research institutions, the private sector, and multilateral and bilateral donors—provides coordination on nutrition-specific activities Samburu, Voleje, and Gitau Sessional Paper No. The Climate Change Act, the Kenya National Adaptation Plan —, and the Ending Drought Emergencies initiative include strategies to adapt to climate change, support sustainable livelihoods in drought-prone areas, and build resilience WFP Prioritize policies and programs that increase the productivity, food security, nutrition, and resilience of small-scale farmers and pastoralists.
Continue to promote education for women and girls, particularly in areas dominated by pastoralism, which are characterized by low female education rates and high child wasting rates. Strengthen support for improvements in the water, sanitation, and hygiene WASH environment in Kenya, including implementation of the Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy, — Urban settlements, rural areas, and informal settlements face the lowest levels of improved sanitation, compared with planned urban areas GoK
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