By Khumbo Kaliwo:
Experts in agriculture, nutrition and health (ANH) have gathered in Lilongwe for a week-long event where they are discussing issues bordering on the sub-sectors, among others.
Malawi is hosting the 8th ANH 2023 Academy Week from Monday to June 30, where specialists from 35 countries are expected to discuss the interconnectedness of the three areas and how to address challenges they continue to face.
ANH 2023 has also attracted 600 global agriculture researchers and practitioners who have joined the conversations online.
Director of AHN Suneetha Kadiyala said the conference is a platform for experts to discuss and explore the potential approaches which will sustainably and equitably address food system challenges.
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Kadiyala also said stunting remains a problem globally and that almost every country in the world is facing the problem of increasing diet-related chronic diseases.
Director of Nutrition in the Ministry of Health, Felix Phiri, disclosed that Malawi will be reviewing its nutrition policy this year.
The latest policy, which covered the 2018- 2022 period, aimed at ensuring that evidence-based, high-impact nutrition interventions were developed and implemented at scale.
The policy addresses issues such as preventing undernutrition and nutrition education, social mobilisation and positive behaviour change.
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“The [ANH 2023] conference will help Malawi to learn lessons from the evidence which has been generated globally by different researchers,” Phiri said.
He added that though Malawi is doing well in nutrition, the reduction in malnutrition cases made between 2016 and 2020 was “very low”.
“The indicator has been quite promising. However, the reduction made from 2016 to 2020 was not good because we just moved from 37 percent to 35 percent,” Phiri said.
Several bodies, including the World Food Programme, the United States Agency for International Development and Unicef have stated before that Malawi is among developing countries experiencing the double burden of malnutrition, with high prevalence of both undernutrition and overweight.
The latest Global Nutrition Report, however, shows that Malawi is on course to meet two of the global nutrition targets namely, maternal, infant and young child nutrition.
