2022: The Year of Nutrition

Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent: Strengthening Agro-Food Systems, Health and Social Protection Systems for the Acceleration of Human, Social and Economic Capital Development

As part of the long-term vision set out in Agenda 2063, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union has adopted common African aspirations, drawing on the potential of its populations, in particular, a human capital well-nourished citizens and in good health with a particular emphasis on women, adolescents and children. Human capital is key for development as it leads to improved lives for individuals, higher earnings and improved incomes for countries.

Africa was estimated to have a population of 1.25 billion in 2018 and is the fastest urbanizing continent, with a growth rate of more than 2.6 percent. The large youth population presents a potential demographic dividend that, if adequately leveraged with the right investments, could contribute to accelerating sustainable and equitable development. Over the years, the under-5 mortality has reduced by more than 50 percent between 1994 to 2019; fertility rates have declined from 6 to 4 children per women. However, compared to the rest of the world, the malnutrition remains high in the continent and undernutrition is particularly an underlying cause of almost half of child deaths.

About the African Union theme of the year for 2022

According to the findings of the Continental Accountability Scorecard launched by the African Union and the Africa Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) in 2019, data shows that in the African continent;

8 million children under 5 years are stunted, and 58.7 million of those stunted are in Africa
Only seven (7) member states have stunting rates below 19 percent
Fifteen (15) member states have child wasting prevalence below 5 percent
Thirty-eight (38) countries have women’s anemia prevalence rates of more than 30 percent
Eighteen (18) member states have at least 50 percent of infants exclusively breastfed
Twenty (20) member states have more than 70 percent prevalence rates for vitamin A supplementation.

At the same time, overweight, obesity and non-communicable diseases related to the quality of diets are increasing rapidly, worsening morbidity and mortality rates. Malnutrition, by its double manifestation, does not spare any African country at one point in the life cycle. Malnutrition is not only one of the worst killers of children under five years of age but prevents children and adolescents from reaching their full potential, and traps entire populations in vulnerability. Through its negative effects on the development of human capital and its productivity, malnutrition contributes to the delay in African countries’ economic and social development, with unacceptable human consequences on African individuals, communities and nations.

New evidence has shown that the persistence of the burden of malnutrition has very significant consequences for physical, mental, cognitive and physiological development of African children; hence it has become a critical human rights issue that goes far beyond the already existing volatile public health impact. At the same time, evidence shows that malnutrition leads to decreased social and economic development of nations and becomes a very important political and economic development issue.

According to the findings of the Cost of Hunger in Africa Study, it is estimated that African countries are losing the equivalent of between 1.9 and 16.5 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to child under-nutrition. It is also estimated that malnourished children are at risk of losing more than 10 percent of their lifetime earning potential.

In addition to existing malnutrition challenges the global health crisis of Covid-19 has greatly exposed the economic vulnerability of African countries and the weaknesses of their health and food systems. The price to pay for keeping the virus at bay has been, in many African countries, at the expense of gains made in reducing malnutrition. It is vital that these gains are protected by increased and well-targeted official development assistance, but above all by an increase in allocations of national resources, focused on the nutritional well-being of populations, including the most vulnerable ones.

While the past decade has made it possible to acknowledge better the importance of investing in nutrition at global and continental levels, substantial efforts are still needed to stem the scourge of malnutrition through various strategies:

Building Resilience: Food and nutrition security are, in themselves, important elements of individual resilience, but they can also enhance the resilience of whole economies by improving the health and productivity of individuals. More efforts are needed people, communities, countries, and global institutions prevent, anticipate, prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks and not only bounce back to where they were before the shocks occurred.
Multisectoral and interdisciplinary approach: The complex causes of nutrition and the wide range of participants influencing need to be addressed through a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral approach. Malnutrition is a complex problem caused by various factors: these determinants are directly linked to inadequate and inadequate nutrition and care regimes and practices. (sustained by health services- inadequate maternal and childcare practices - as well as unsuitable water provision, sanitation and health services. in a context of food insecurity, access to basic social services and other more fundamental issues such as socio-economic factors such as poverty, education and gender inequality sanitation hygiene and water supply. These complex multidimensional and interdependent determinants, intervening at different levels of society, require concerted and synergistic efforts across several sectors to reduce this scourge rapidly and sustainably. Partnership at all level is key in addressing nutrition challenges and the role of South-South cooperation should also be considered.
Link between agriculture and nutrition: Increasing food production to ensure food security is not enough to end malnutrition if special attention is not given to all determinants with a focus to early childhood during the first 1000 days of an individual's life. This involves ensuring the good health and nutrition of adolescents girls, pregnant and breastfeeding women, infants and young children, particularly by promoting exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life and continued breastfeeding up to 2 years of age or beyond with appropriate complementary foods. Agriculture has a key role to play in nutrition-sensitive interventions; however, there is a need to consider the entire food system in determining, designing and implementing agricultural and food-based interventions to improve nutrition.
Improving nutrition requires systemic change: There is a need to ensure that nutrition is integrated into resilient and strong health systems through universal health coverage -healthy, inclusive, sustainable and environmentally/ climate sensitive food systems; sanitation and sanitation systems inclusive drinking water supply; effective social protection systems ensuring that no one is left behind, including the poorest and most nutritionally vulnerable; and investment in nutrition education for all.
Investments in nutrition: There is a need to strengthen the existing financing mechanisms and scale up innovative and sustainable resource mobilization, which includes a broad set of public and private sector actors and financial instruments if actions are to be implemented in the continent.
Commitments to actions: The policy commitments and strategies are yet to generate the expected results. African Member states need to clearly review and exert effort in order to improve the translation of political commitments and declarations into effective programs on the ground, particularly in the context of the ambitious targets set in the African Union’s Malabo Declaration for 2025, World Health Assembly targets and Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030.

African Union Agenda for Nutrition

In the Framework of the long-term vision encapsulated in Agenda 2063, aspiration one underlines the importance of nutrition for the “Africa We Want” with goal on “African people have a high standard of living, quality of life, sound health and wellbeing” and goal 3 on “citizens are healthy and well nourished, and enjoying a life expectancy of above 75 years.” Article 14 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child also calls for adequate nutrition, care to combat malnutrition and improved knowledge of nutrition, including breastfeeding and human capital development.

In a move to address the challenge of hunger and malnutrition, the 2014 Malabo Declaration 6 committed to ending hunger and reduce child stunting to 10 percent and the underweight to 5 percent 2025, endorsed Cost of Hunger (COHA) in Africa Study as a key advocacy tool and further endorsed the AU Nutrition Champion. In addition to the AU Nutrition champion, in the effort to rally high-level political engagement to advance nutrition in Africa, the African Union Heads of State and Government in 2018 endorsed the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) Initiative by the Africa Development Bank and the African Union Commission. The role of ALN is to rally high-level political engagement to advance nutrition in Africa.

In 2019, the African Union Heads of States and Government launched the Continental Accountability Nutrition Scorecard as a tool to promote accountability for the achievement of nutrition security by the continent and improve progress monitoring being made towards reaching the global and continental nutrition targets. Other AU nutrition commitments include among others, the institutionalization of the Africa Day for Food and Nutrition Security (ADFNS) in 2010, and the 1st March as the African Day of School Feeding in 2016. In addition to the above commitments, the AU has in place the African Regional Nutrition strategy (ARNS) which was initially developed to guide member states on nutrition policies and programs over a period of 10 years from 1993 – 2004; 2005-2015 and 2015-2025. To guide effective action of AU Member States to achieve nutrition targets, the ARNS 2015-2025 calls on all AU Member States to put together multi-sectoral nutrition action plans, budgets and expenditure tracking system for effective implementation and monitoring of nutrition interventions.

Under the leadership of the Department of Health Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, in partnership with other sister departments and key stakeholders, have made various contributions in support of the implementation of the above AU decisions and commitments:

Annual convening of the meeting of the African Task Force on Food and Nutritional Development (ATFFND) to oversee the implementation of the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (2016-2025). ATFFND was established in 1987 by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU) recognition of the importance of nutrition in socioeconomic development, the need to accelerate actions to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, and the importance of harmonizing policies and interventions, as well as strengthening collaboration among all stakeholders on the continent.
The department is also leading the Mid-Term Review of the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (2016-2025). The MTR is a comprehensive assessment across the four priority interventions of the Africa Regional Nutrition Strategy (ARNS);

Defining standards, norms, policies and frameworks for AU Member State adoption and ratification;
Convening and facilitating consensus (“One voice”) on matters regarding nutrition security in Africa;
Advocating and implementation of nutrition security policies and programs;
Establishing architecture of decision-making on the implementation of the ARNS 2015 – 2025. This will guide the development workplan of the commission for 2021-2025.

Led the implementation of the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) Study, which has so far been implemented in twenty (21) AU member states. The department if currently putting together a Continental Report on Cost of Hunger findings from all the completed member states and developing continental recommendations to be implemented going forward. Malabo Declarations called on all Member States to consider participation in the study, including wide dissemination of the results at country and regional levels.
To respond to the request of Africa Union member states for an Africa Union Nutrition Report, the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS) working with the department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) Education, Science, Technology (ESTI; Africa Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other global stakeholders, the department have put together the first African Union Continental Report Nutrition Report.
The Commission, through the leadership of the department, has supported the workplan of the AU nutrition Champion. In fulfilment of the Malabo Declaration, His Majesty King Letsie III, Head of State and Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho, was appointed as the first African Union Nutrition Champion for the period two years 2014 -2016, his term was extended for a second term 2017–2019, and further for the third term for the period 2019-2021. During the three terms, African Union Nutrition Champion has worked closely with AUC and partners to rally high level leaders to prioritize investment in nutrition.

Rationale for Nutrition as the Theme of Year 2022

The global health crisis of Covid-19 has greatly exposed the economic vulnerability 7 of African countries, as well as the weaknesses of the health and food systems. With COVID-19 pandemic much of human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded. The price to pay for keeping the virus at bay has been, in many African countries, at the expense of gains made in reducing malnutrition. Specifically, the prevalence of wasting will also increase, due to higher risks of acute food insecurity. Urgent action is needed to preserve the gains made, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Investing in human capital is now more important than ever through designing the needed interventions especially targeting the most vulnerable.

Therefore, there is a need for continued efforts including, advocacy, especially in the regions and communities where risks are most acute, strengthening social protection systems and safeguarding access to food and nutrition for the most vulnerable groups, especially young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older people and other at-risk groups. It is vital that these gains are protected by increased and well-targeted official development assistance, but above all by an increase in allocations of national resources that are focused on the nutritional well-being of populations, including the most vulnerable ones.

At the level of the African Union, the AU Nutrition Champion in 2020 issued a high-level position paper, “Embedding Nutrition within the COVID-19 Response and Recovery” calling on all African Heads of State and Governments, to ensure the incorporation and promotion of nutrition smart interventions within COVID-19 response and recovery action plans. The 2022 theme of the year will be a good opportunity for continued advocacy to ensure gains made over the years in eliminating nutrition and all its forms are not reversed.

The theme of year will also be a great opportunity to advocate for adequate financing, implementation capacity and coordination to enhance the quality of collaboration possible for effective implementation. 16. In addition, the role of data for nutrition with also take a priority during 2022 as African member states must increase funding for data collection on food consumption patterns, micronutrient status and implementation processes, to provide the evidence needed towards accelerating progress. This use the already ingoing initiatives like the Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard (CNAS) and Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS).

The 2022 AU Nutrition Theme for 2022 will be led by the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS), in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE), Department of Education, Science, Technology (ESTI) and Africa Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD).

-NEPAD).

Priority Areas

AU theme for 2022 activities will be guided by the following priorities:

Data management and information systems, knowledge generation and dissemination, to inform decision making: This aims at leveraging on current knowledge and evidence base on nutrition security, including food security, access to water and sanitation for stimulating a rethinking and nurture new initiatives, including research, science, technology and innovation. This will also entail sharing experiences as well as south-south learning. It will also cover the aspect of investing in national of nutrition monitoring platforms, including data management and information systems to inform decision making.
Advocacy for increased commitment and nutrition investment: This will provide an opportunity for continued advocacy in support for human capital development through investment in nutrition. The activities aligned with this will include seminars, public lectures, advocacy to parliamentarians and policy makers and high-level discussion panels participated by the African Union Champion for Nutrition, Members of the ALN and other informed prominent personalities. A media and communication team will be dedicated to preparing key messages informed by the sub-theme, targeting specific audience and readers.
Partnerships and mutual accountability platforms for harmonized action and transparency: Food security and nutrition have remained a major intervention are in developing countries. Several stakeholders, both local and international, are involved in this area. Without a proper coordination mechanism for coordinating partners and generating complementarity rather than competitiveness, piecemeal and sporadic interventions usually prove counterproductive. It is for this reason that discussions need to take into consideration as one of the focus areas the creation of platforms for interaction of partners and stakeholders, discuss options and agree on practical solutions for the way forward.
Institutional capacity enhancement and enabling environment for intensified action and delivery of results and impact: Interventions for enhancing capacities of institutions to be able to implement, deliver on planned activities, monitor progress and report on performance and achievement, is critical for success of any programme. A stocktaking of Member States’ institutional capacities, including available budgetary allocations for implementation of national nutrition programmes will also be a focus for 2022.

Objective and Expected Outcomes

The general objective of the AU Nutrition year for 2022 is to secure greater political commitment and investment in nutrition to address the ongoing nutrition challenges.

The specific Objectives include:

To evaluate and take stock of the progress made in the implementation of the AU commitments on nutrition at the continental, regional and national level;
To facilitate broad-based and inclusive consultations/dialogue among all relevant stakeholders and policy makers, including parliamentarians, civil society organizations (women groups, youth groups, farmer organisations, professional and academic institutions and associations), the private sector, and international organizations to build multisectoral platform and to reach and map out practical solutions and pathways for accelerating the achievement of results;
To facilitate mutual learning and experience sharing among AU Member States and through the South-South Cooperation Framework in order to generate collective responsibility and buttress ownership to move forward Africa’s food and nutrition agenda addressed in the ARNS and CAADP Framework;
To facilitate dialogue with Africa’s strategic partners for demonstrable commitment and alignment of programmes toward a harmonized action and mutual accountability.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes expected from activities aligned with the above objectives, will be as follows:

Creation of a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder platform for the coordination of all nutrition specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and all the sectors concerned;
Strengthened monitoring, evaluation and accountability framework;
Elevated motivation and commitment to act and contribute to ending all forms of malnutrition in Africa, though new pledges to support, resource and finance action plans dedicated to achieving set targets and results;

Increased domestication and implementation of all AU and national legislative and financing instruments aimed at addressing food security and nutrition challenges.

Reference and Resource Materials

Several Decisions and Declarations; Treaties; Policy and Strategic frameworks have been adopted over the years by the African Union to guide in the realization of Africa’s Aspiration 1 for a “A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.”

Africa is determined to eradicate poverty in one generation and build shared prosperity through social and economic transformation of the continent.

The Goals therein include;

A high standard of living, quality of life and well-being for all by ending poverty, inequalities of income and opportunity; job creation, especially addressing youth unemployment; facing up to the challenges of rapid population growth and urbanization, improvement of habitats and access to basic necessities of life – water, sanitation, electricity; providing social security and protection;
Well educated citizens and skills revolutions underpinned by science, technology and innovation by developing Africa’s human and social capital (through an education and skills revolution emphasizing science and technology)
Healthy and well-nourished citizens by expanding access to quality health care services, particularly for women and girls;
Transformed economies and jobs by transforming Africa’s economies through beneficiation from Africa’s natural resources, manufacturing, industrialization and value addition, as well as raising productivity and competitiveness
Modern agriculture for increased proactivity and production by radically transforming African agriculture to enable the continent to feed itself and be a major player as a net food exporter;
Blue/Ocean Economy for accelerated economic growth by exploiting the vast potential of Africa’s blue/ocean economy;
Environmentally sustainable climate and resilient economies and communities by putting in place measures to sustainably manage the continent’s rich biodiversity, forests, land and waters and using mainly adaptive measures to address climate change risks

Assembly Decisions and Declarations

Assembly Decision on 2022 Theme
AU Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security. Maputo: African Union, Assembly/AU/Declaration
Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods 2014
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme. Maputo Declaration 2003

Reports / Strategic Documents