Abstract
Solomon Islands, like many Pacific Island nations, suffer from the burden of malnutrition. External drivers including population growth, declining agriculture and fisheries productivity and global food trade have contributed to the transition to greater reliance on imported foods. Globally, diets are recognized as both a cause of and solution to the burden of malnutrition. Using a mixed‐method approach this study assessed nutritional status and key determinants of malnutrition among women and young children in rural Solomon Island communities. Quantitative 24‐hour recall surveys identified diets of women and young children in these communities to be very limited in diversity. Typical daily diets comprised of fish, sweet potato (and/or rice) and slippery cabbage (a leafy green) usually boiled in coconut milk or baked. Participatory research using problem tree and biocultural approaches identified basic determinants of poor diets and opportunities to address these challenges. We highlight three domains of opportunity to improve diets across multiple scales; 1) improve nutrition‐sensitive agriculture and fisheries to produce and distribute diverse, productive and nutrient rich foods; 2) nutrition education and empowerment, focusing on the first 1000 days of life, to influence and inform choices regarding food consumption; and 3) reducing the consumption of imported, energy‐rich nutrient poor foods through national and regional policies. These multi‐scale domains highlight that food system approaches that strengthen integrated policy and empower people are essential for healthy and sustainable diets in Solomon Islands and more broadly in the Pacific region.
Highlights
Malnutrition afflicts one in three people globally, and is among the leading causes of the global burden of disease (Gakidou et al, 2017; Development Initiatives, 2018; HLPE 2017)
We highlight three domains of opportunity to improve diets across multiple scales; 1) improve nutrition-sensitive agriculture and fisheries to produce and distribute diverse, productive and nutrient rich foods; 2) nutrition education and empowerment, focusing on the first 1000 days of life, to influence and inform choices regarding food consumption; and 3) reducing the consumption of imported, energy-rich nutrient poor foods through national and regional policies. These multi-scale domains highlight that food system approaches that strengthen integrated policy and empower people are essential for healthy and sustainable diets in Solomon Islands and more broadly in the Pacific region
The Pacific region are home to nearly half the world's population experiencing the double burden of malnutrition (Haddad, Cameron, & Barnett, 2015)
Summary
Malnutrition afflicts one in three people globally, and is among the leading causes of the global burden of disease (Gakidou et al, 2017; Development Initiatives, 2018; HLPE 2017). Most Solomon Islanders live in rural, coastal communities where fish is the primary animal-source food and gardens provide root crops and vegetables for household needs and income generation (Andersen et al, 2013; Bourke et al, 2006; Govan, Schwarz, Harohau, & Oeta, 2013; McCarter et al, 2018) Despite this largely subsistence mode of living, rapid population growth, shortages of arable land, declining fish stocks and cheap, low-quality food imports create challenges for nutrition security (Horsey, et al, 2019; Hughes & Lawrence, 2005; C-POND, SPC, UNDP, & WHO, 2013; Snowdon & Thow, 2013; Charlton et al, 2016). We focus our mixed-methods analysis on women and children who are often the most nutritionally vulnerable population groups
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