Regional Focus

Across West Africa, prevalence of the six World Health Assembly indicators for Maternal, infant, and young child nutrition remain high. The region continues to show unacceptably high rates of childhood stunting (19.2 million (31.4%) in 2016), accounting for half of the stunting increase in Africa since 2000 (UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank Group 2017). Currently, West Africa is one of five sub-regions in the world with stunting rates higher than 30% (ranking 4th, after Oceania (38%), East Africa (37%), and South Asia (34%)) (UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank Group 2017).

From 2000 to 2016, there has been a slow but steady increase in the prevalence of U5 overweight/obesity (1.9 million (3%) in 2016) (UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank Group 2017), and there continues to be a pervasive and an excessively prevalent burden of anaemia (ranging from ~52-88%) in U5 children (Annex 1). In addition, the prevalence of wasting and LBW are at 9% and 16% respectively, the highest when compared to the all other regions in Africa (Development Initiatives 2017).

Most West African countries (with variation among them) have increased the use of policy instruments for nutrition and the establishment of multisectoral national nutrition coordination bodies. Transform Nutrition West Africa will work closely with the African Leaders Network, the African Union, ECOWAS, WAHO, national SUN teams and national and regional CAADP teams to help foster demand for evidence which is crucial to accelerate reductions in maternal and child malnutrition.