The government of Tanzania has recently pledged to mount an all-out war against malnutrition by increasing funding in the coming national budgets.
Launching the Global Nutrition Report themed “From Promise to Impact, ending malnutrition by 2030”, Vice- President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the 2016/17 national budget has set nutrition interventions at 500/- per child and will continue to increase the money in future budgets to reach the global set target of US 8.5 dollars (about 18,000/-) per child.
“Although money set aside for this area has been small, various efforts and strategies employed have resulted to reduction, albeit small, in stunting in the country to 34 per cent. But after the country joined the scaling up nutrition movement, more money has been set aside to support these efforts. We have started slowly but we promise to increase the money in future national budgets”, she explained.
In Tanzania, major nutrition problems relate mainly to undernourishment.
It was revealed that the new Food and Nutrition National Policy had already been reviewed and would be presented to the cabinet for endorsement.
The Vice-President was saddened by the fact that the leading regions in malnutrition are the ones leading in food production in the country, stressing on importance of public education on nutrition.
Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms.Ummy Mwalimu, admitted that malnutrition was a problem in the country despite progress in the health sector.
The minister promised to increase efforts in bringing malnutrition and its associated problems under control. “We want to keep up with the Fifth Phase Government’s speed and ensure this problem is addressed accordingly.
Despite progress made, millions of children and women in Tanzania continue to suffer from one or more forms of under-nutrition, including low birth weight, stunting, underweight, wasting, vitamin A deficiency, iodine deficiency, disorders and anemia.
