Tackling Rising Malnutrition in Namibia

Nutrition and Food Security Alliance of Namibia (NAFSAN)

BY: BEN SCHERNICK, 2 October 2024 | Rising malnutrition cases and deaths in Namibia, especially among children under the age of five, have been reported in the news for a few years now, with poverty, growing inequalities, and extreme droughts making the situation even worse. By September 2024, over 75% of Namibian’s were projected to be to some degree food insecure (www.nafsan.org/facts-and-figures). Given the gravity of the situation, only multi-sectoral and genuinely collaborative efforts by various stakeholders, together with innovative and sustainable (long-term thinking) approaches can make a real difference.

In 2021, Namibia’s government, under the leadership of the Office of the Prime Minister, revised the comprehensive Food and Nutrition Security Policy - www.nafsan.org/nfns). but effective coordination mechanism for its implementation are yet to be put in place.

On our part, NAFSAN and its member organisations from civil society, academic institutions and temporarily also the private sector, have been working in various ways to improve food and nutrition security at community level, while advocating on national and regional level for better coordination and more investments into sustainable bottom-up initiatives.

Over the past months, we have been engaged in the following:

• Finalizing Nutrition-for Health: Embracing our Namibian Food Systems materials (nafsan.org/n4h) and providing Training-of-Facilitator Workshops, with support from GIZ Namibia’s Farming for Resilience project, the European Union, the Japanese Government through the World Health Organisation (WHO) Namibia, the Capricorn Foundation, and the Commonwealth Foundation.
• Promoting organic and permaculture-based backyard and community gardens – nafsan.org/gardening & www.nafsan.org/permaculture with support from Namibia Organic Association and Namibia Nature Foundation not only to improve food security at household level but to demonstrate why organic agriculture and agroecology are not only sustainable but key to our survival.
• Supporting a multi-stakeholder visit to Omaheke in February 2024, to better understand malnutrition in the region and work towards solutions. All findings are presented in a comprehensive Report by the National Planning Commission.
• Facilitating the development of a Post-Discharge Strategy to address high rates of malnutrition re-admission and deaths of children in hospitals. This strategy for the Ministry of Health and Social Services also involves and relies on local civil society organizations and their work to strengthen bottom-up support systems in communities, while the need for more efficient social protection systems remains. The private sector is also getting more involved, such as Capricorn and FirstRand Foundations.
• Advocating for a truly Universal (= Unconditional) Basic Income (bignam.org) not only as a more efficient impactful ‘grant’ to help all Namibians survive and live more dignified lives, but as direct investment in and stimulus for local economies in rural and urban areas.
• Stimulating discussions on how to improve breastfeeding environments through an online survey (http://cloud.nafsan.org/SurveyAug24.pdf), while liaising with stakeholders to revive RightStart Namibia as a long-term resource for Namibian parents and caregivers around early childhood development and nutrition; because transgenerational problems, such as malnutrition, can only be overcome when we focus on the crucial period of the first thousand days of a child’s life.
• Addressing high rates of overweight/obesity, directly linked to the rise of non-communicable diseases (diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.), often caused by overconsuming sugar, unhealthy fats and ultra-processed foods. This rapidly increases public and private healthcare costs for individuals. This is why we are advocating for the removal of the current VAT-exemption of sugar, while suggesting the introduction of a new tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, like many other countries have already done.

More information/updates: www.nafsan.org/our-newsletter

*Ben Schernick (director@nafsan.org) is the Director of the Nutrition and Food Security Alliance of Namibia (NAFSAN). This article was submitted for the CIVIC BEAT Newsletter (September Edition) call for submissions.