Malnutrition costs Uganda Shs 1.8 trillion in 4 years

In four years since 2009, government has spent an estimated Shs 1.8 trillion on stopping and treating malnutrition, a new report by Save the Children International’s Child Rights Governance Initiative (CRGI) reveals. 

The report titled, ‘Budget transparency and Child Nutrition’ says it costs the country about $120 (Shs 300,000) on average to treat a malnourished person and the opportunistic infections. This is equivalent to 5.6 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

According the 2011 Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS), an estimated 2.4 million children (about 33 per cent) aged less than five are stunted and about 110,220 children have died in the last five years due to malnutrition.

“Uganda could save Shs 266bn if the prevalence of stunted children is reduced to 10 per cent. Unfortunately, adequate nutrition is seldom treated and prioritized as a human right and there are flaws in accountability and transparency,” said Peterson Kato Kikomeko, a senior lecturer at Kyambogo University, during the recent launch of the report.

The report also revealed that access to budget information about the government’s child nutrition interventions was limited at national level and almost non-existent at sub-national level.

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By far, Karamoja, West Nile and the southern western region have the highest number of stunted and wasted (low weight for height) children.

Being stunted has long-term effects on children including loss of cognition, low self-esteem, societal marginalization and poor performance at school as their brains do not reach their full potential.

Boaz Musiimenta, a senior policy analyst in the prime minister’s office says malnutrition is also associated with almost a quarter of all maternal deaths, despite it being preventable.

“Such preventable deaths reduce Uganda’s gross domestic product by an estimated 4.1per cent, costing US$ 310 million in lost economic productivity every year,” he said.

“Most mothers simply boil bananas add salt and a meal is fixed and instead of giving children a balanced diet, many people, especially in rural areas focus on quantity.”

To curb malnutrition in the country, Musiimenta advocates both direct and indirect interventions. Direct interventions include: food supplements, micronutrients powders and fortification of the food that the children eat whereas indirect interventions include: de-worming, safe drinking water and malaria control among others.

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Civil society organizations under their umbrella association; the Uganda Civil Society Coalition on Scaling up Nutrition (UCCO-SUN) urged government to provide detailed and robust information about child nutrition interventions, both at national and sub national levels.

“Regular information should be provided throughout all phases of the budget process and at all levels of government and information on planned child nutrition spending over the multiple budget years should be released,” reads a UCCO-SUN statement released during the launch of the child nutrition report.

It adds that timely annual accounts must be submitted to independent audit offices to allow for timely release of audit reports. Independent audit institutions should also be made available for public scrutiny after completion.

The new report focuses on investment in children aiming to ensure that all children, especially the most marginalised, benefit from greater public investments and better use of society’s resources in realising children’s rights.

It was launched under the theme, “Recommitting to scaling up nutrition: the need for effective accountability and transparency” in Kampala.