Manama, Bahrain, May 5, 2015—Child stunting, a result of malnutrition, is a larger problem than gross domestic product would suggest in nine Arab countries, while the Arab region as a whole imports more than 50 percent of its population’s daily caloric intake.
These indicators and others pose serious challenges to sustainable development, including food security and nutrition, across the Middle East and North Africa, according to researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). One result is a “double burden of malnutrition”—high levels of both child stunting and maternal overweight and obesity—in many Arab countries.
“The 2008 global food price crisis and social unrest in several Arab countries have contributed to slow progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition,” said Olivier Ecker, a research fellow at IFPRI. “At the same time, large food subsidy systems such as those in Egypt and Iraq appear to be ineffective in meeting the food needs of vulnerable people and addressing child malnutrition.”
Ecker and other experts will discuss these issues today in Manama, the Kingdom of Bahrain, at a side event of the Arab High-Level Forum on Sustainable Development organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). The side event, jointly organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), IFPRI, and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), will focus on food security and nutrition.
While the Arab region has seen improvement in some areas of development, such as primary school enrollment and literacy, it has struggled to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets related to hunger, nutrition, and food security.
The reasons are varied, but include high dependency on food imports to meet consumption needs; resource scarcity, particularly water; vulnerability to climate change; poverty; and high levels of social instability in many countries. Research shows that food insecurity is not only a consequence of civil conflict, but can also trigger social unrest.
“Many Middle East and North Africa countries have made it to the world’s list of countries with the highest rates of obesity in the world; yet, many others, figure among the countries with the highest incidence of stunting among children,” said Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa. “Governments should integrate nutrition objectives in their agricultural programs. This can contribute to achieve food security and enable people to choose healthy nutritional options.”
Increased displacement of people since 2011 has put additional pressure on national resources, public services, and safety nets.
“Creating scalable safety nets that can rapidly respond to emergencies to support people’s lives and livelihoods represent an important contribution to addressing these challenges,” said Carlo Scaramella, Regional Director a.i. of WFP in the Middle East and North Africa. “Efforts to improve better targeting during and after crises will be required to secure longer term sustainability and efficiency.”
Child stunting is as much as 20 percent above the rate predicted by GDP in nine countries, including Syria, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, Yemen, and Libya. Some countries—Egypt and Iraq in particular—face a growing “double burden of malnutrition,” as they face high levels of both child stunting and maternal overweight and obesity.
“Malnutrition, especially among children and pregnant women, has high economic costs in the long-term due to the reduced productivity of malnourished children later in life,” Ecker said.
“Yet Arab governments appear to have done little to achieve greater progress in reducing undernutrition and mitigating the adverse effects of obesity and overweight.”
“There has been insufficient investments in programs that directly address malnutrition and related diseases, even though research shows that such investments have high economic returns,” Ecker added. “There is also a need to raise more awareness among people on the importance of nutrition for development through country-level initiatives and regional initiatives such as Arab Spatial.”
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The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. www.ifpri.org.