Nampula and Zambezia are among the provinces most affected by acute malnutrition in Mozambique. The Ministry of Health has already designed strategies to mitigate the problem that affects 38 per cent of the country’s children.
The Mozambican province of Nampula continues to have the worst chronic malnutrition rates, especially among children under five years old. The prevalence rate is 46.6 per cent. The situation worries the province’s governor, Manuel Rodrigues, who does not reveal data on hospitalisations or deaths, but who regrets the fact that a large part of the goods produced in the region are sold out.
According to this source, “most [of the province’s agricultural production] are food products that could very well be used to improve the malnutrition indices of our population.”
“So this paradox of us being a producing province, but on the other hand the province with the highest rates of chronic malnutrition should draw everyone’s attention,” he stressed.
Nampula is the province that produces the most food in Mozambique. It produces about 11 million tonnes of various products per year.
Enemy myths
For Manuel Rodrigues, some popular myths may be aggravating the malnutrition situation. “Each one of us [researchers] should contribute with our knowledge, so that we can reverse this scenario of mums being forbidden to eat eggs, chickens Avoid food taboos; and we must demystify these taboos for the good of our population of Nampula,” he appealed.
Malnutrition is not only a problem in Nampula. It affects all the provinces of Mozambique. Marla Amaro, head of the Nutrition department at the Ministry of Health, says the Government has drawn up action plans to combat the phenomenon.
“As the Ministry of Health, we have drawn up various strategies that aim to guide the provinces to implement various activities with the aim of reducing [the problem]. Of the latest strategies, we have to highlight the malnutrition intervention package, the treatment of malnutrition in the community. And these strategies aim to take our actions to the level of the communities to reach every Mozambican child,” he added.
Reducing cases
These strategies seem to be working. The prevalence of malnutrition has decreased by almost four percentage points in just three years – from 50.1% to the current 46.6%.
“Nampula province was the first that implemented malnutrition treatment in the communities, and the first district was Monapo and then other districts followed. The results were excellent, because more than 90 per cent of the children identified with malnutrition in the communities were successfully treated and no child lost their lives to acute malnutrition,” he stressed.
Although Nampula seems to be on the right track, Marla Amaro leaves recommendations: “We appeal to Nampula province to continue making efforts, because the province is the most populated in the country, it has the largest number of children and the rates verified in this province end up impacting negatively throughout the country”, she exhorted.
DW
