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Abstract
Undernutrition has, fortunately, risen on the policy agenda in Africa in recent years. In
2004, an international IFPRI 2020 conference held in Kampala on food and nutrition
security in Africa drew attention to the issue, and high-level policymakers noted the
problem and the need for action much more than they had before. Still, undernutrition remains
a fundamental challenge to achieving improved human welfare and economic growth in Sub-
Saharan Africa. To address that challenge, national governments must undertake appropriate
policies and actions. Politically, however, a high prevalence of undernutrition is not seen as
anomalous and indicative of the inability of governments to fulfill their duties to their citizens.
This report examines the findings from a qualitative institutional study in Ghana, Mozambique,
Nigeria, and Uganda to determine what it is about national-level policymaking, nutrition,
and the issue of nutrition in policymaking circles that makes it difficult for governments
to target undernutrition as a national development priority. The underlying determinants of improved
nutritional status fall across several sectors. Consequently, much more so than for most
other development challenges, the routine operations of government through sector-specific
action are unlikely to succeed in comprehensively eliminating undernutrition.
Given this poor fit between nutrition and government operations and the consequent problems
for establishing leadership on the issue of undernutrition within government, the absence of
effective nutrition advocacy coalitions in all of the study countries turns out to be a key constraint
to building national commitment to overcoming undernutrition. As such, there is little demand
to hold government agencies in each sector accountable for assisting the undernourished.
Although the challenge of building advocacy efforts should not be minimized, this study
suggests several actions that advocacy coalitions can take to raise the profile of undernutrition as
a national development problem.
This report provides guidance on how national governments can be encouraged to address
the needs of the undernourished so that such individuals can enjoy long, healthy, productive,
and creative lives. It suggests that development actors continually highlight for political and
bureaucratic decision-makers the fundamental constraint that undernutrition poses to achieving
key development objectives, including economic growth and poverty reduction. Moreover, it
should be made clear that governments can support the implementation of relatively low-cost
solutions that enable all to meet their nutritional needs.
Undernutrition is a solvable problem that requires public action and commitment. IFPRI
is committed to the task of comprehensively eliminating undernutrition globally and will continue
to examine the policy processes through which such public action can be fostered and
maintained.