Developing new forms of regional support for Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Trends in malnutrition continue to deteriorate in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite global progress made over the past 50 years in improving the basic human development indicators. One of the major contributing factors to this poor nutritional situation in SSA has been the lost decade of the 1980s due to the structural adjustment and debt burdens of most countries. The poor economic situation and social crisis in SSA have resulted in an increase in the number of impoverished people with the majority of those classified as being middle class in the 1970s moving to upper lower class and lower middle class positions in society. The number of those living on the poverty line at below US$1 a day has also increased. The outcome is a decline in the quality of life mostly among women and children with malnutrition and its functional impairments as the greatest consequence. Thus reducing or eradicating poverty represents the main strategy for nutrition improvement in SSA. Several UN conferences have provided a basis for developing new forms of regional support for eradicating malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. The most relevant to nutrition improvement are the World Summit for Children 1990 the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 International Conference on Nutrition 1992 International Conference on Population and Development 1994 World Summit for Social Development 1995 Beijing 1995 and the World Food Summit 1996. (excerpt)