For the first time, African countries have made nutrition a key focus of their continent-wide agricultural development strategy. The recent endorsement of the latest 10-year Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Action Plan marks a significant shift in which food quality is prioritised alongside quantity to sustainably improve food production while also ensuring healthy diets.
Nutrition is central to all of the objectives of the Kampala Declaration. By addressing malnutrition in all of its forms, as well as its underlying drivers, societies are better equipped to cope with the risks of climate change and disasters, and the erosion of human capital that comes as a consequence of unhealthy diets.
However, each African country faces its own unique set of challenges, from barriers to agricultural production and climate variations to specific dietary and health concerns. In particular, the different manifestations of malnutrition across Africa, from undernutrition to overweight and obesity, mean that fulfilling the Kampala Declaration will require country-level strategies that address individual contexts as a whole-of-society endeavour.
Governments in every African country must therefore find their own ways to integrate nutrition across all relevant departments and ministries, which include health, agriculture, education, and economy. And there is no time to waste. With just two months until the Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G), a global event that fosters financial and political commitments, countries have a narrow window in which to set out their commitments and garner support from the international community.
New data mean parliamentarians across the continent now have a greater understanding of the scale of all forms of malnutrition in Africa alongside the cost of inaction. A staggering 64 million children under five years of age are estimated to live in severe food poverty. This results in inadequate nutrition or undernutrition, which inhibits physical and cognitive development, limiting children’s future productivity to just 40% of its potential and hampering Africa’s future development.
Beyond undernutrition, obesity – another form of malnutrition – is identified as an equally pressing challenge stalling progress in many African countries. Nearly a third of adults in Northern and Southern Africa are classified as obese, a trend linked to dietary shifts toward processed foods. Combined, all forms of malnutrition leave Africa’s entire population vulnerable to shocks, including climate extremes, poverty, and disease outbreaks. Integrating nutrition into all sectors can help governments future-proof communities against the impact of these shocks.
Moreover, the benefits of integrating nutrition into national strategies and budgets extend to human development and economic growth. For instance, a return of up to $23 is expected for every dollar invested in addressing undernutrition in a typical African country. At the same time, investing in nutrition interventions supported by national policy actions to address the underlying causes and impacts of malnutrition would allow healthy growth and development of the population, which, in turn, increases a country’s productivity.
Tanzania’s National Nutrition Strategy is an inspiring example of how integrating nutrition into national development agendas could help African leaders address the different forms and impacts of malnutrition. Under the leadership of H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania actively raised awareness about nutrition among parliamentarians and fostered partnerships with private and civil society actors.
This led to the development of the country’s National Nutrition Strategy, which established nutrition coordination committees and interventions across all regions, councils and sectors, leading to improvements in nutrition outcomes, particularly among women and children. As an early member of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement in 2010, Tanzania has benefited from global networks that have helped build the capacities of local communities to implement effective nutrition interventions and sustain these efforts into the future.
Like Tanzania, other African countries must now focus their attention on how each can incorporate nutrition across all regions and sectors to deliver on the objectives of the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan.
The year ahead offers multiple opportunities, including South Africa’s Presidency of the G20, to consolidate new commitments to tackling malnutrition at national levels. Alongside the Nutrition for Growth Summit in March, the extension of the World Health Assembly’s targets on nutrition to 2025 also provide critical moments for reinforcing the urgency of tackling malnutrition. The Scaling Up Nutrition Movement’s own Global Gathering at the end of the year will be an important moment to work on the implementation of commitments made at the Nutrition for Growth Summit, showcase country case studies and further galvanise support from the global community. All will be essential for driving investment into the special fund established under the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan to support nutrition-sensitive agricultural development.
By aligning national policies, budgets, and actions with the goals of the Kampala Declaration, African countries can foster well-nourished populations that are better equipped to adapt to climate change, improve economic productivity, and build more resilient societies. I am confident that the opportunities in 2025 will help to underpin the collective effort we need from all stakeholders—governments, the private sector, and civil societies alike.
