Ethiopia Fact Sheet Nutrition for Health Jul 2017

Malnutrition contributes to more than 50 percent of all infant and child deaths in Ethiopia. The damage caused by malnutrition during the first 1,000 days—from the start of a woman’s pregnancy to her child’s second birthday—is usually irreversible in terms of its negative impact on the child’s health, cognitive development, physical growth, and school and work performance later in life. In Ethiopia, the major causes of malnutrition are persistent food insecurity, poor maternal and child feeding practices, high incidence of infectious diseases, and limited access to quality nutrition services. Household wealth, education, and family planning are also key drivers of children’s nutrition. Twenty-seven percent of women in Ethiopia are thin or malnourished and 38.4 percent of children suffer from stunting. Ethiopia’s lowland pastoral areas and densely populated, food-insecure highland woredas (districts) suffer frequent droughts, complicating access to and consumption of nutritious foods.

Date 
Wednesday, July 19, 2017 - 7:30pm