The Hidden Crisis: Child and Maternal Nutrition in Ethiopia

 

Global rates of malnutrition are currently so high that experts are calling it a ‘world health crisis’. Particularly severe among children, malnutrition is linked to 45% of global deaths among under-fives and causes 50 million children worldwide to be affected by wasting.

Child nutrition is intrinsically linked with maternal nutrition, as pregnancy and lactation are times of heightened nutritional requirements and increased vulnerability to both macro and micro-nutrient deficiencies. Improving nutrition in children and pregnant and lactating

women makes up a central component of the Sustainable Development Goals – a set of 17 global goals with specific targets aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all by 2030.

Malnutrition places a particularly high burden on low- and middle-income countries, with long-term negative effects on all areas of life for individuals, families and communities. Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of child and maternal malnutrition in the world, and the issue is one of significant concern.

Since 2016, Save the Children has been working with communities in Ethiopia to improve nutrition among children under 5 and pregnant and lactating women through the Improving Nutritional Status of Pregnant and Lactating Women and Children in Rural Ethiopia (INSPIRE) project.

INSPIRE was designed to reduce malnutrition in 22 across the Afar and Amhara regional states in the north of Ethiopia. Over the course of 4.5 years, the project benefited over 450,000 pregnant and lactating women with children under 5 and almost 3 million people indirectly.

To achieve its aims, INSPIRE did 3 things. Firstly, it built the capacity of health facilities, enabling them to deliver high-quality, gender-sensitive services and build community members’ knowledge of nutrition. Secondly, it improved community knowledge of agricultural practices, which in turn improved household income as well as the accessibility and diversity of nutritious food. Thirdly, the project provided accessible water and sanitation infrastructure while strengthening community knowledge of hygiene and sanitation practices.

As a result of INSPIRE and the dedication of community members, children’s diets and overall health have improved. Waga, 39, lives in the Amhara region, where she leads a local INSPIRE self-help group. Using locally-sourced ingredients, Waga helps to create nutritious feeding recipes for children who are transitioning from breastfeeding to solid foods. After working together to mix and grind ingredients, the self-help group sells the enriched complementary feeding flour in the community. And Waga is inspiring others to follow her lead – 10 villages and hundreds of mothers are now also creating complementary feeding recipes with local ingredients.

The INSPIRE project has positively impacted other areas of life for communities in Afar and Amhara, too, including economic development, environmental protection and gender equality.

In addition to the self-help group, Waga leads community distribution of energy-efficient cookstoves. Using less fuel than traditional ways of cooking, energy-efficient stoves save families time and money. They also create lower levels of air pollution, which protects the environment and the health of the community. The stoves also enable people to save and earn money, which can then be spent on accessing health services.

Communities also have increased access to clean water, which improves gender equality. Access to water reduces workloads, which, in turn, enables women and girls to engage in other activities such as continuing their education, starting a business or managing their own livestock. Women and girls felt more safe to collect water and  empowered to choose new income generating activities. In addition,   increased access to clean water and hygiene practices helped prevent children from contracting acute diarrhoea.

The positive impact that the INSPIRE project has had on communities in Afar and Amhara cannot be underestimated. Through improved nutrition interventions, pregnant and lactating women and children under 5 can not only survive, but thrive.

 

“Improving Nutritional Status of Pregnant and Lactating Women and Children in Rural Ethiopia” (INSPIRE) is a four-and-a-half year project implemented in 22 regions across the Afar and Amhara regional states in Northern Ethiopia between January 2016 and September 2020.

 

By: Temesgen Abebe Melaku Save the Children, Thematic Director – Food Security, Livelihoods, Resilience and WASH