A month earlier, in February, Uganda’s Ministry of Health, with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) organised a nutrition symposium in Kampala, focusing on the systems approach for improving nutrition service delivery and outcomes in Uganda.
Experiences were shared by nutrition stakeholders with reports on research findings, innovations, and lessons learned from projects.
The symposium was held at time when nutrition situation in Uganda indicated unacceptable levels of malnutrition. According to the 2016 Uganda Demographic Survey, stunting among children is at 29%, wasting is 4% while underweight accounts for 11% of children in Uganda. Twenty four percent of women and 9% of men aged 15-49 in Uganda are overweight or obese. The prevalence of hypertension and diabetes among adults is gradually increasing over the years with women having a higher prevalence of 27.7% and 4.7% as compared to males with 26.7% and 4.4% respectively. Currently, 33% of annual deaths in Uganda are attributed to the five leading non-communicable diseases (NCDs): cardio-vascular diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, mental health disorders and substance abuse.
Malnutrition, in all its forms, poses significant threats to human health by increasing the risk of disease and leading to poor growth, intellectual impairments, perinatal complications, and increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Poor diet and NCDs account for 26% of deaths among adults around the world.
To tackle malnutrition in Uganda, as elsewhere, the multiple risk factors related to food, care, health, and the environment need to be addressed
Advocacy Action: Do you have current data on levels of obesity and a breakdown by age and other factors in your country? Is there an obesity reduction plan, with targets, linked to a diabetes plan? What about data for malnutrition and a similar reduction target?