By Sethi Ncube
According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Nutrition Targets 2025 report, the global prevalence of childhood stunting and the total number of stunted children less than 5 years of age are decreasing. Between 2000 and 2016, stunting prevalence declined from 32.7% to 22.9% and the number declined from 198.4 million to 154.8 million. The number of stunted children in Africa increased from 50.4 million to 59 million between 2000 and 2016.
Globally, overweight prevalence among children less than 5 years of age has gone up from 5% to 6% between 2000 and 2016 (9). The total number of overweight children has also risen from 30.4 to 40.6 million for the same period. The number of overweight children is increasing in all regions.
allAfrica’s Sethi Ncube spoke to Dr Adelheid Onyango, WHO Africa Regional Adviser for Nutrition, who was participating at the 69th Regional Committee meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the African Region in Brazzaville. Read more…
