FOOD-BASED DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR ZAMBIA - HOW FAR ARE WE?

A little over a year ago, Zambia, with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) embarked on establishing National Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) in an effort to address issues of malnutrition. A taskforce comprising of experts from key line government ministries as well as some civil society organizations that are involved in nutrition, was established to establish comprehensive food-based dietary guidelines specifically for Zambia.

This multi-sectoral food-based approach entails promoting dietary diversification composed of foods that are indigenous and easily accessible in Zambia.

The overall aim is to harmonize the messages and strategies of public food and nutrition; and agricultural policies as well as education programmes that involve food and health.

A nutrition profile based on the2013-14 ZDHS reveals that stunting in children under the age of 5 stands at approximately 40%. The Study further shows that 42% of these stunted children are from rural households while 36% are from urban households

The nutrition profile, also shows that 6% of children are wasted – indicating an increase of 1% from 2007 when the previous ZDHS was conducted. At same time, the prevalence of underweight of children under the age of 5 is 15% - which shows no change in the prevalence rate from 2007 ZDHS. These statistics help describe the gravity of the need to address poor nutrition in Zambia which the government hopes to address through the FBDGs.

Among various reasons identified, lack of education and sufficient information on what constitutes nutritious food was identified as a leading cause to poor nutrition in children. The FBDGs will therefore help consumers and farmers alike make healthier food choices.

Local consultant who is guiding the National taskforce in establishing the national FBDGs, Dr. Chiza Kumwenda, explained that currently, the team is in the process of finalizing the gathering of empirical evidence on which the FBDGs will be based. He, however added that this was the most challenging part of the process due to information gaps in Zambia’s food consumption habits among other things.

“The draft of the evidence report is being consolidated. This report is supposed to inform the development of the guidelines – we need to know what do people eat, how sustainable are our food systems so … some information is still coming in,” Dr. Kumwenda said.

“The next thing we are going to do is we need to develop food guides which will be used to promote dietary behaviours and eating patterns…So we are trying to come up with something like a food pyramid for Zambia,” he added.

The process now is to compile an evidence report that will include,among other things, the designated food groups specically for Zambia and from there on, build upon country-specific dietary guidelines.

These guidelines will comprise of food that can be easily grown in Zambia and indigenous to the country's local diets.

As climate change and urbanization  are influencing the food preferences of different communities ,it is imperative that messages on good nutrition are widely understood and shared