Multi-sectoral Approach for Stunting Reduction Project (MASReP)

Abstract

Malnutrition is a global health challenge that affects every country in the world. Children, women, and adolescents are the most vulnerable and a significant burden is experienced by children under-five (1). Globally, 22% of under-five children are stunted, 7% are wasted and 6% are overweight (2). Similarly, malnutrition is a major public health problem in developing countries. In 2020, it was estimated that about 31% of children under five were stunted and 6% were wasted in Africa (3). It is the cause of more than 300,000 deaths of under 5 children every year while it is the third leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (4). Under-nutrition, which includes stunting, wasting and underweight, is also the underlying cause for about half of under 5 children mortality in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) (1). Stunting, severe wasting, and intrauterine growth restriction together are responsible for 21% of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for under 5 children (5).

The progress toward achieving global nutrition targets, particularly stunting, is not promising(4).The COVID-19 pandemic is also expected to affect the progress in which it was estimated to increase stunting cases by 1.6 million from 2020 up to 2022 globally (6). Over the past two decades (2000 - 2018), the prevalence of stunting declined by 11%, i.e. from 46% to 35% in East Africa (7). In Ethiopia, the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight was 37%, 7%, and 21% respectively in 2019 (8). Nationally, even though the prevalence of stunting has been reduced from 52% in 2000 to 37% in 2019 (8,9), the magnitude is still classified as „very high‟ public health significance category (10) with considerable geographical variations in rural (41%) and urban (26%) areas (8). It is even worse in some parts of Ethiopia like the Tekeze river basin located in the Tigray and Amhara regions. The area is prone to drought due to severe land degradation, deforestation, and low soil fertility. In 2018, the area was identified by a high prevalence of stunting among under-fives (48%) with a slight difference in Amhara (50%) and Tigray region (47%) (11).