By Nasratu Kargbo
Thirty thousand Children under the age of five are at risk of death due to inadequate nutrition, from October 2022 to August 2023, according to the World Bank’s Sierra Leone Economic Update (SLEU) 2023.
The report which was launched on the 27th October 2023 explains that over three hundred thousand children under the age of five are stunted, whilst one hundred thousand are wasted.
The country’s stunting rate in 2020 according to the report was below the averages for West Africa and Africa but was however above the global average. Speaking on the waste rate for 2020, the report states that the country was lower than all three of the above.
“Based on Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates calculated from data on middle upper arm circumference measurements (MUAC) for children aged between 6 and 59 months, the national prevalence of acute malnutrition for children stood at 5 percent in 2022, almost double the 2.7 percent recorded in 2021. Local averages from 13 of Sierra Leone’s 16 districts also showed sharp increases, pointing to a nationwide deterioration in children’s diets” a part of the report reads.
According to the World Bank report, food utilization in Sierra Leone is poor, as reflected in the indicators of child health. The report explains that child nutrition is a powerful indicator of two vital aspects of food utilization: the nutritional quality of food within households and the bioavailability of nutrients in those foods.
It’s stated that food insecurity is increasing in the country, with the average calorie and protein supply per person below the African average and declining, with emphasis on protein supply. Speaking on some of the contributing factors to these problems, the report states that since the start of COVID-19, there has been a prevalence of insufficient food consumption which is projected to affect 55% of the population by 2023.
It says due to the deterioration in the country’s economic conditions, the nation has continuously experienced structural constraints on food security, stressing that vulnerable groups in both rural and urban areas are severely impacted.
Highlighting some figures, it states that in January 2023, seven hundred and eighty-eight thousand (788,000) persons which is 9.3% of the nation’s population faced crisis or emergency Integrated Food Security Phase Classification 3 (IPC3+) level food insecurity.
“While this number is below the all-time high of 1.5 million in March 2021, it is growing and was expected to increase to 1.1 million (13 percent of the population) by August 2023. Currently, the number of people projected to be facing emergency (IPC4) level food insecurity increased from zero in January to over 21,500 by August 2023”, the report notes.
The World Bank 2023 Sierra Leone Economic Update is titled “Enhancing Value Chains to Boost Food Security”.
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