Africa loses $25bn to malnutrition annually, says Akinwumi

From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina has said that Africa loses US$25 billion annualy to malnutrition.
He disclosed this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
According to him, although there is surplus food in the world, 800 million people live in extreme poverty and hunger globally with about 1.3 billion tonnes of food going to waste every year.
Adesina urged governments to invest in nutrition, saying, “We need to ensure that community based nutrition systems are strengthened; that will enhance general food safety, especially in the informal food markets that dominate most African cities.”
In her remarks, Coordinator of the (SUN) Movement, Gerda Verburg, called on African leaders to make moves to address the issue of obesity and under-nutrition in the continent, saying the challenge of under-nutrition and obesity is one that behoves on them to build bridges between countries dealing with these issues.
The statement signed by the Communication Officer, of Civil Society Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUN), Lilian Ajah-mong stated Gerda Verburg disclosed that there are 10 million fewer children who are stunted today than there were when the SUN movement stated seven years ago.
According to her, because of the worrisome of the situation SUN movement recently gathered participants from 60 countries including Nigeria, spanning government, academia, civil society, the United Nations and the business community recently in Abidjan for the 2017 Global Gathering to review progress in tackling malnutrition and share innovations and best practices to drive progress.

In his remarks, UNICEF Executive Director who is the chairman of SUN Movement lead group said; “To end malnutrition in all its forms, we need to expand our work = including by deepening our focus on children trapped in humanitarian emergencies and addressing the growing obesity epidemic that disproportionately affects the most disadvantaged children in every society – and integrate our efforts with other development sectors, breaking down the silos that limit our progress.”
Similarly, the Project Director of CS-SUNN, Beatrice Eluaka said it has stimulated cross border exchange of information, knowledge, innovations, integrated approaches across African countries towards addressing malnutrition.