Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia

Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia
Author: Baye, Kaleab
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2020-06-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Ethiopia has witnessed significant reductions in child mortality, undernutrition, and communicable diseases, but more substantial and faster progress is still needed. The rise in obesity and in noncommunicable diseases, particularly in urban areas, is alarming and requires urgent policy and programmatic attention. Unhealthy diets drive both undernutrition and obesity and are the underlying cause of significant proportion of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Maintaining the relatively high breastfeeding practices and increasing the diversity of diets will be critical to improving nutrition in Ethiopia. Implementation of effective nutrition messaging that shapes consumer behavior to adopt healthy dietary patterns, while bridging gaps in both the reach and the quality of such messaging is warranted. The health extension program, which is the cornerstone of the transformation of the health sector, may need to be redesigned in a way that improves its reach and the quality of the services it provides and minimizes the risk of burnout of frontline health workers. Interventions focusing on making healthy diets available, affordable, and accessible are urgently needed.

Synopsis: Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia

Synopsis: Accelerating progress in improving diets and nutrition in Ethiopia
Author: Baye, Kaleab
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 4
Release: 2020-06-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Ethiopia has witnessed significant reductions in child mortality, undernutrition and communicable diseases, but more substantial and faster progress is still needed. The rise in overweight and obesity and in non-communicable diseases, particularly in urban areas, is alarming and requires urgent policy and programmatic attention. Unhealthy diets are the drivers of both forms of malnutrition and are the underlying cause of significant proportion of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Maintaining the relatively high breastfeeding practices and increasing the diversity of diets will be critical. Implementation of effective nutrition messaging that shapes consumer behavior to adopt healthy dietary patterns, while bridging gaps in reach and quality of nutrition messaging is warranted. The health extension program that is the cornerstone of the health sector transformation may need to be redesigned in a way that improves reach, quality, and minimize the risk of burnout of frontline health workers. Interventions focusing on making healthy diets affordable, accessible and available are urgently needed.

IFPRI publications related to nutrition in Ethiopia

IFPRI publications related to nutrition in Ethiopia
Author: Capstone 2025
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 16
Release: 2019-10-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) began research activities in Ethiopia in the 1980s to assess the root causes of drought-related food-production shortages and support adoption of appropriate policy responses. IFPRI’s rigorous empirical research contributed to a broader understanding of economic development processes in Ethiopia and built capacity to conduct such research on a national scale. Working with many long-standing partners, IFPRI evaluated strategies for achieving sustainable agricultural growth, investment in agricultural research, the provision of safety nets to strengthen resilience, prioritization of nutrition interventions for women and children, property rights, and management of natural resources, among other goals. Evidence from this and other work informed programs and initiatives to improve food and nutrition security for vulnerable people.

Nutrition and Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education

Nutrition and Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education
Author: Sarah Burkhart
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2024-07-03
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 2832551165

Building on the Millennium Development Goals, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, billed by the UN as “an agenda of unprecedented scope and significance.” These seventeen goals are conceived as integrated, indivisible, and as balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. To be achieved by 2030, the goals are organized around five core pillars: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. As a member of the SDGs Publishers Compact, Frontiers is committed to advocating the themes represented by the SDGs and accelerating progress to achieve them. Nutrition sits at the heart of the SDGs. In addition to achieving ‘Zero Hunger’ (SDG2), improvements in nutrition are critical to both achieve and reap the benefits of all seventeen global goals. With good nutrition comes improved health and wellbeing (SDG3), enhanced educational and work productivity (SDGs 4 and 8), less poverty (SDG1) and reduced inequalities (SDGs 5 and 10). And with stronger and more sustainable environments, communities, and technologies (SDGs 6, 7, 9, 11-17) improved food security and nutrition will follow. As part of an innovative collection showcasing nutrition in the context of the SDGs, this Research Topic will focus on Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.

The rising costs of nutritious foods in Ethiopia

The rising costs of nutritious foods in Ethiopia
Author: Yimer, Feiruz
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 4
Release: 2017-06-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Given the high prevalence of undernutrition among children in low income countries and the associated high human and eco-nomic costs (Hoddinott et al. 2013), improving nutritional out-comes must be an urgent priority. Improving nutrition is high on the policy agenda of the government of Ethiopia, as stated in the Growth and Transformation Plan II, which aims to reduce young child stunting levels from 40 percent in 2014/15 to 26 percent in 2019/2020. Lack of access to diverse diets is one of the underlying factors contributing to chronic undernutrition (Arimond and Ruel 2004, UNICEF 1998). Despite recent improvements, child stunting in Ethiopia remains widespread (CSA and ICF International 2017). Moreover, Ethiopian children consume one of the least diverse diets in sub-Saharan Africa (Hirvonen 2016). At the household level, food consumption baskets are dominated by cereals and pulses, while the consumption of animal-source foods and fruits and Vitamin A-rich vegetables is rare, especially in rural areas.1 Such monotonous diets are regarded as a major contributor to non-communicable diseases in Ethiopia (Melaku et al. 2016). Recent research suggests that the poor dietary diversity in ru-ral areas can be explained, at least partly, both by limited knowledge about the health benefits of diverse diets and by poor access to food markets. Households in areas in which food crop production is not very diverse but which have good access to mar-kets are found to have more diverse diets than do households in such areas but which have poor access to markets and, so, de-pend primarily on own-production for the food they consume.2 Yet, even with sufficient access to markets and knowledge on the benefits of diverse diets, poor households may simply be un-able to afford nutritionally rich foods (Warren and Frongillo 2017). Indeed, prices and affordability of nutritious foods remains a neglected area of research in efforts to understand poor dietary diversity in Ethiopia and elsewhere.3 In the analysis described here, we explore how prices and, consequently, the affordability of nutritious food have changed over the last decade in Ethiopia.

The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012

The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012
Author: Berhane, Guush
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2017-01-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is a large-scale social protection intervention aimed at improving food security and stabilizing asset levels. The PSNP contains a mix of public works employment and unconditional cash and food transfers. It is a well-targeted program; however, several years passed before payment levels reached the intended amounts. The PSNP has been successful in improving household food security. However, children’s nutritional status in the localities where the PSNP operates is poor, with 48 percent of children stunted in 2012. This leads to the question of whether the PSNP could improve child nutrition. In this paper, we examine the impact of the PSNP on children’s nutritional status over the period 2008–2012. Doing so requires paying particular attention to the targeting of the PSNP and how payment levels have evolved over time. Using inverse-probability-weighted regression-adjustment estimators, we find no evidence that the PSNP reduces either chronic undernutrition (height-for-age z-scores, stunting) or acute undernutrition (weight-for-height z-scores, wasting). While we cannot definitively identify the reason for this non-result, we note that child diet quality is poor. We find no evidence that the PSNP improves child consumption of pulses, oils, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, or animal-source proteins. Most mothers have not had contact with health extension workers nor have they received information on good feeding practices. Water practices, as captured by the likelihood that mothers boil drinking water, are poor. These findings, along with work by other researchers, have informed revisions to the PSNP. Future research will assess whether these revisions have led to improvements in the diets and anthropometric status of preschool children in Ethiopia.

Irrigation and Women’s Diet in Ethiopia A Longitudinal Study

Irrigation and Women’s Diet in Ethiopia A Longitudinal Study
Author: Kaleab Baye
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2019-09-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Some agricultural practices, such as irrigation, have the potential to buffer seasonal dietary gaps and thus improve diets, particularly for subsistence farmers but also for rural and urban households that purchase irrigated produce from local markets. While the seasonality of households and children’s diets is well documented, little is known about the seasonality of women’s diets and the influence of irrigation. Using longitudinal data from Ethiopia, this study characterized women’s diet over time and evaluated the potential implications of seasonality and irrigation on women’s diet. Women’s dietary diversity was low (3-4 out of 10 food groups) and exhibited high seasonal variability (P<0.05). Diets were predominantly plant-based, with little consumption of nutrient dense foods, such as fruits and animal source foods. High seasonal variability in energy, protein, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and zinc intakes were observed (P<0.01). Irrigators were more likely to meet the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDDW), had higher energy and calcium intake, and lower prevalence of anemia, than women from non-irrigating households (P< 0.05). No cases of malaria were reported from the three rounds of screening. Our preliminary findings suggest that there is high seasonal variation in women’s diet, but this can be partly offset by irrigation practices.

Combating Malnutrition in Ethiopia

Combating Malnutrition in Ethiopia
Author: Andrew Sunil Rajkumar
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2011-12-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821387650

Despite recent progress, malnutrition remains a severe problem in Ethiopia, especially among young children. Many of them suffer lifelong consequences in terms of higher risk of mortality and future illness, impaired cognitive ability (including lower IQ) and educational attainment, and overall productivity loss. This report provides the findings from an in-depth data-based analysis of malnutrition in Ethiopia and its causes. It assesses various aspects of current nutrition programming in the country, noting the importance of Ethiopia's first National Nutrition Strategy and National Nutrition Program established in 2008. The report also examines key details including costs and benefits of a range of interventions against malnutrition in the country, including some that are not yet being implemented but could potentially be introduced. The analysis draws on data from household surveys, detailed program data and data from various sources on costs, impacts and potential coverage, among others. The report finds that contrary to what is commonly believed and traditionally used to guide policymaking, a substantial amount of the malnutrition in Ethiopia is due to factors other than food insecurity, pointing to the need for a multi-sectoral approach. Nutrition interventions in general are found to have high benefit-to-cost ratios - sometimes in the double or triple digits - with these ratios being especially high for micronutrient interventions, insecticide-treated bednets, deworming and community-based interventions. Among others, the report recommends the introduction of deworming for pregnant women in Ethiopia - which has the highest benefit-to-cost ratio among the interventions analyzed - and scaling up community-based interventions. These include the Community-Based Nutrition program which shows impressive results in Ethiopia after just over two years of implementation. The report also recommends various ways of improving the effectiveness of nutrition programming including by improving program targeting, enhancing coordination and linkages among programs, and establishing an effective nutrition information and surveillance system.

The rising costs of nutritious foods: The case of Ethiopia

The rising costs of nutritious foods: The case of Ethiopia
Author: Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 27
Release: 2019-08-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Costs of healthy diets are worryingly rising in a number of developed and emerging economies. However, less is known on these costs for developing countries. Using price data from a large number of markets in Ethiopia, we find that real prices of all nutritionally-rich food groups increased significantly (between 19 and 62 percent) over the period 2007 to 2016. This contrasts with (1) staple crops (grains, roots, and tubers), which did not show any price increase, and (2) oils, fats, and sugar, the prices of which decreased substantially. Using detailed nationwide datasets and relying on time series methods, we link these price increases to changes in local markets, demand and supply factors, transaction costs, and international trade. We find that prices of nutritionally-rich food groups – compared to cereals – are relatively less affected by international trade and exchange rate changes but more so by rapidly increasing local and city demand. This rising demand is likely due to recent income growth and rapid urbanization and the high-income elasticities for nutritious foods in Ethiopia. Moreover, we find that local production changes affected prices of nutritious items little, but national price rises were found to have been significantly linked with food price rises in commercial clusters in the country. Changes in transaction costs – fuel and transport costs – explained relatively little of the observed food price changes.

Understanding urban consumers’ food choice behavior in Ethiopia: Promoting demand for healthy foods

Understanding urban consumers’ food choice behavior in Ethiopia: Promoting demand for healthy foods
Author: Melesse, Mequanint B.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2019-04-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Using survey data collected from 996 representative households in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this paper documents several insights to help understand urban consumer food purchasing and consumption choices. The findings can be summarized as follows: 1) We find that households face important dietary gaps; a large proportion eats insufficient amounts of nutrient-dense vegetables, animal-source foods, and fruits. 2) The consumption of ultra-processed foods increases with income and may become a pressing health concern as incomes rise. 3) From a purchasing perspective, we find that consumers buy foods for different purposes at different outlets. Nearby kiosks and informal street markets are frequented for small food items and for fruits and vegetables, while formal open markets and consumer cooperatives are used for bulky food items. 4) Respondents make food and food outlet choices based on their health and food safety concerns, but few consider the nutritional value of food when purchasing it. Concurrently, the availability of a wide variety of healthy and safe foods is highly valued by most respondents for outlet choice. Among consumers in lower income categories, they tend to make food and food outlet choices based on prices and location convenience. 5) Although nutrition is not a primary concern when making choices about food, consumers appear to have reasonable nutritional knowledge. Most respondents considered a healthy diet to be primarily plant-based. Most people are aware that they should eat more fruits and vegetables and less sugary, fatty, and salty foods, but they have limited knowledge on the nutrient content of specific foods and the causes of obesity. 6) Labelling would not be an effective way to increase nutritional knowledge; most respondents have limited understanding of the information that labels provide. Rather, most respondents trust the information provided by health professionals over other sources. In sum, these results are potentially relevant for policy and the design of future programs for improving nutritional outcomes through enhanced diets.