Better nutrition for children in Uganda The policy makers role
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Date
2012
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC)
Abstract
Uganda has made tremendous progress in improving
welfare outcomes in the past 20 years, some key welfare
outcomes especially regarding nutritional status have performed
dismally. For instance, the proportion of poor persons
reduced from 56% in 1992 to 25% by 2010. Also, the
infant mortality rate (IMR) reduced from 81 to 54 death per
1000 live birth during 1995-2011. Similarly, the HIV/AIDS
prevalence rate reduced from 30% in the early 1990s to 6.7%
by 2011. On the other hand, Uganda continues to maintain
a large population of malnourished children and women and
this dents the country’s impressive human development record.
According to population based data from Uganda
Demographic and health Surveys (UDHS) of 2006 and 2011,
2,314,620 children under the age of five are too short for their
age (stunted). An estimated 250,000 children under the age
of five suffer from severe acute malnutrition annually and
are in need of medical treatment. However, the most recent
estimates from the 2011 UDHS indicate that child stunting
rates have declined in the past five years. The proportion of
children aged below 5 years classified as stunted declined
from 38% in 2006 to 33% by 2011 (Figure 1). Furthermore
Figure 1 shows that Uganda has registered mixed progress
regarding child nutritional health indicators and the country
may not meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)
1 target of halving Uganda’s underweight levels from 25%
in 1990 to 12% by 2015. Worse still, Uganda appears to off
the mark with regard to the target of halving the population
below the minimum level of dietary energy consumption—
the level of food insecurity has remained above the 60%
mark since the 1990s.