The right to health is the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing and housing.
According to the World Health Organisation, in children aged 5 and below, 155 million are stunted, 52 million are wasted with 17 million severely wasted, while 41 million are overweight and/or obese.
In Africa, around 58.5 million children are suffering from stunting and it is the only continent where the numbers have increased over the last two decades.
39 per cent and 28 per cent of the world’s stunted and wasted children respectively are in Africa and, in Eastern and Southern Africa, the number of stunted children has risen from 23.6 million to 26.8 million. Economically, stunting costs Africa $25 billion annually, a cost too huge to ignore.
Damage caused by stunting is irreversible, has many adverse consequences for child survival and long-term well-being and has far-reaching consequences for human capital, economic productivity, and national development.
It also causes irreparable stunted physical growth, and inhibits children’s intellectual development. Malnourished, stunted women give birth to low-birth-weight babies transferring the broad economic disadvantages of malnutrition to the next generation.
Children who suffer from stunting are also more likely to suffer poor health, are at risk of disease, premature death and diet related conditions. Stunting also inhibits children’s future development as they may never grow to their full height or develop their full cognitive potential, and they are at elevated risk of poverty.
Unfortunately, and surprisingly, stunting is not even given that much attention in Uganda given that child height is not in the child health card and is therefore not tracked. Even the only statistics by Uganda are based on the Uganda Demographic Health Survey, done every five years.
Uganda’s national objectives guarantee among others; medical services, food security and nutrition, and clean and safe water for everyone while the National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy Action Plan of Uganda (2016-2021) recognizes that Children need holistic needs like nutrition, health, and nurture.
It recognizes that improving maternal, infant, and young child nutrition and addressing their nutritional needs will arrest a lifetime of problems that malnourished children face and the burdens they impose on households, communities, and the nation.
However, 29 per cent of all Ugandan children under-five are stunted, Human Capital Index (HCI) is characterised by low labour productivity (38 per cent) and low Human Development Index (at 0.516), all mainly attributed to; poor population health and safety; food and nutrition insecurity, among others.
That HCI means a child born in Uganda is expected to achieve only 38 per cent of their productive potential by 18 with the current education and health state.
Uganda can address the issue by; implementing preventive programs within the agriculture and health sectors, training and equipping health system volunteers in communities and health workers at health centres to identify the signs of chronic undernutrition and addressing the, improving maternal and infant nutrition and health care interventions, and reviewing the child health card.
The first 29 months of life carry the highest risk for future stunting and addressing the challenges can break the cycle of stunting, malnutrition, poverty, unproductivity, wasting among others.
Also, encouraging breastfeeding for the first 2 years of life which, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, is very vital for Children between the ages of 6-23 months as they have greater nutritional needs than at any other time of life.