01 Mar 2023

African countries would do well to have dietary guidelines to ensure healthier dietary behaviours, and prevent diet-related chronic diseases says Kenya based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme Director, for Amref Health Africa, Mr Martin Muchangi. 

He was speaking in an interview ahead of the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2023, to be held in Rwanda early next month. 

He said it was important that African nations prioritise research towards production of nutritional foods that will support changes in the food environment. 

The countries should also proactively teach consumers to opt for those foods. 

Mr Muchangi said food systems that supported healthy diets in sustainable, resilient and equitable ways could help to eradicate poverty and malnutrition as well as further restore natural resources. 

He further pointed out that food system activities would contribute to greater gains for humanity and nature and counter poor food and nutrition which remained the main contributor to the global burden of diseases including famine related deaths, starvation and nutritional deficiency diseases in communities, under/over nutrition especially among children as well as diet related communicable and non-communicable conditions. 

The food system transformation would generate a future where all people had access to healthier diets that were produced in sustainable and resilient ways that restored nature and delivered equitable livelihoods. 

The food system transformation, he said, required an entire shift transformation of managing water, land use, natural resources, biodiversity and the mechanism to manage all supporting systems. 

That however, would remain an illusive dream if African countries failed to adequately fund food systems research and development as was the case currently. 

He said all those diseases had the potential to increase costs associated with healthcare, therefore calling on African nations to develop food based dietary guidelines. 

“There are situations where farmers who produce nutritional dense food, do not have the knowledge around the preparation and consumption of those foods,” said Mr Muchangi. 

That would create a situation where people starved and became malnourished in the midst of plenty, he said. 

Food-based dietary guidelines would therefore assist in making nutrition easier as it would translate evidence based nutrition recommendations into use. 

Amref Health Africa, the Rwandan Ministry of Health, the African Union and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa), will on March 5 – 8, bring together key policy leaders, innovators, researchers, health workers, societal leaders and the civil society for dialogue and action aimed at mainstreaming climate discourse into health policies for Africa in response to the most pressing challenges including conflict, climate change, food insecurity and human rights violations. 

A press statement from Amref Health Africa, states that it will be the first time that a global health conference in Africa focuses on climate change as a key determinant of health. 

“We know that climate change and health are intrinsically intertwined, yet they have for decades now been treated as two separate issues,” said Dr Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO, Amref Health Africa according to the release. 

The release further says at AHAIC 2023, themes at the nexus of climate change and health, including a rapidly warming planet, pandemic preparedness, food security and nutrition, innovation, research and development, gender, and conflict will be explored, AHAIC 2023 comes against the backdrop of renewed calls by African leaders for more urgent action against climate change as its impacts continue to be acutely felt on the continent, says the release. Ends