16 Oct 2019

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Ms Ruth Maphorisa says government is committed to providing quality preventive, promotive and curative health services

Giving a keynote address during launch of the State of the World’s Children Report in Gaborone on Tuesday, Ms Maphorisa said in collaboration with other stakeholders, the Ministry of Health and Wellness aimed at enhancing children’s nutritional status.

She said recently the ministry embarked in the review of the Nutrition Information System to support monitoring and surveillance of the nutritional status of children.

Ms Maphorisa further urged stakeholders such as other ministries, UN agencies and the diplomatic community to step up their efforts to address nutrition issues by focusing on the lifecycle approach to ensure that they were covering issues of nutrition across various population groups with primary focus on the health and nutrition of pregnant women, adolescents and other vulnerable groups.

“Nutrition concerns each one of us irrespective of where we live. It is central to public health, poverty reduction, sustainable development and achievement of vision 2036.

Access to safe food is a human right and enhances national economy, trade and tourism, contributing to nutrition security in Botswana,” she said.

Ms Maphorisa further revealed that the NDP 11 Midterm Review would consider introduction of sugar tax for sugar sweetened beverages, taxation of imports of unhealthy foods and tax rebates for key fruits and vegetables.

Giving a state of the world’s children in Botswana, UNICEF representative,  Ms Julianna Lindsey said the UNICEF publication provided an opportunity every year to lay out the situation globally and this year UNICEF was focusing on the triple burden of malnutrition being under-nutrition, stunting and over-weight.

“Botswana is lucky not to have severe acute malnutrition but there are still significant challenges with stunting, anemia and obesity.

Stunting literally affects a child’s brain development,” she said.

Ms Lindsey noted that in 2007, about 31 per cent of children in Botswana was stunted which meant that even if there were any major reductions in the last 12 years, almost one out of every three children taking their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) were stunted.

“They are not learning as much as they should and their future is limited because of this legacy.

If Botswana is to reach high income status, which is a goal that the country has set for itself for vision 2016, it will not happen if we do not address these stunting levels.

Investing in proven interventions to reduce this type of malnutrition is money well-spent for the future of the country,” she added. ENDS