Abstract
On the eve of independence in 1962, malnutrition was the largest single cause of death in Jamaica for children under one. Although child malnutrition rates have rapidly declined since 1962, today Jamaica experiences a double burden of malnutrition: the coexistence of pockets of high child malnutrition with rising levels of childhood obesity. Based on a wide range of sources, including public documents, newspaper reports, scientific studies and reports by international agencies, this article examines a gradual decline in child malnutrition and the rise of the double burden of malnutrition in Jamaica from independence to the present. It will first of all show that changes in the global economy and overseas loans and aid both aided and limited the ability of the Jamaican government to lower child malnutrition levels and also contributed to a rise in childhood obesity. Second, it will illustrate that a traditional deficit-led approach to child malnutrition was followed in post-independent Jamaica, focussing on the public and individuals as targets for intervention and using quantitative measures to trace progress. And third, it will question whether the double burden of child malnutrition will give rise to ‘healthy publics’—‘dynamic collectives of people, ideas and environments that can enable health and well-being’.
Highlights
On the eve of independence in 1962, malnutrition was the largest single cause of death in Jamaica for children under one (Ashworth and Waterlow, 1974, p. 6)
Child malnutrition rates have rapidly declined in the island since 1962, today pockets of high child malnutrition exist alongside rising levels of childhood obesity
This study examines the gradual decline in child malnutrition and the emergence of the ‘double burden of malnutrition’ in Jamaica from independence in 1962 to the present
Summary
On the eve of independence in 1962, malnutrition was the largest single cause of death in Jamaica for children under one (Ashworth and Waterlow, 1974, p. 6). More recently have scholars (e.g. Nott, 2016, 2018; Pernet and Forclaz, 2018; Redfield, 2012; Scott-Smith, 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2015; Tappan, 2017) begun to examine approaches taken by post-independence governments and aid agencies to nutrition, focussing on child malnutrition. Most of this recent body of work focusses on Africa and is concerned with the role of nutritional science and humanitarian actors in approaches to and discussions around child malnutrition. This case study, which pays less attention to nutritional science, will show that approaches to child malnutrition in Jamaica mirrored in many ways those adopted in former African colonies, including the reliance on overseas aid agencies and international lenders. This case study of child malnutrition in post-independence Jamaica, provides a useful addition to existing work on the history of nutrition in postcolonial contexts
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