“Two out of five children suffering from stunting lived in Africa in 2022, while around a quarter of those affected by wasting lived on the continent in the same year”, says Mojisola Karigidi, 2017 New Voices Fellow, in a new piece for Financial Nigeria.
The increase in food prices is one of the major contributors to the slow progress of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) aimed at ending all forms of malnutrition in low and middle income countries. With Africa and Asia having the highest number of malnourished children suffering from stunting or wasting, if the current trend of food inflation continues, not only will the 2030 SDG target will be missed but the risk of wasting will also increase by an estimated 13.14 percent along with the risk of severe wasting which could increase by 20.44 percent.
Karigidi , in this piece, further calls on governments on the continent to “respond swiftly to food price volatility” by increasing the supply of agricultural food products along with increasing investments in rural infrastructure. She emphasizes that cutting down the prices of plant and animal-based protein sources is “essential to improving the purchasing ability of the poor majority in developing countries” as well as “necessary to enable African countries achieve SDG 2”.
To read more on the impact of food inflation on malnourishment in Africa click below.