The latest Global Nutrition Report has been published providing data for all around the globe. The summary for Atrica is provided below:
Africa: The burden of malnutrition at a glance
In the Africa region, there has been slight progress towards achieving global nutrition targets. The global target for overweight among children under 5 years of age has 28 countries on course to meet it, wasting among children under 5 years of age and exclusive breastfeeding among infants aged 0 to 5 months each have 17 countries on course, while stunting among children under 5 years of age has five countries on course. However, not a single country in the region is on course to meet the targets for anaemia in women of reproductive age (aged 15 to 49 years), low birth weight, diabetes among men, diabetes among women, obesity among men, and obesity among women. 20 countries in the region have insufficient data to comprehensively assess their progress towards these global targets.
The latest data shows that anaemia affects an estimated 39.0% of women of reproductive age. Some 13.7% of infants have a low weight at birth in the Africa region. The estimated average prevalence of infants aged 0 to 5 months who are exclusively breastfed is 43.6%, which is lower than the global average of 44.0%. Although it performs relatively well against other regions, Africa still experiences a malnutrition burden among children aged under 5 years. The average prevalence of overweight is 4.7%, which is lower than the global average of 5.6%. The prevalence of stunting is 29.1% – higher than the global average of 21.3%. Conversely, the Africa region’s prevalence of wasting is 6.4%, which is lower than the global average of 6.9%.
The Africa region’s adult population also faces a malnutrition burden: an average of 8.6% of adult (aged 18 and over) women live with diabetes, compared to 8.3% of men. Meanwhile, 18.4% of women and 7.8% of men live with obesity.