Improvement to child nutrition halted

The food crisis that hit six southern African countries last year ended a regional trend throughout the 1990s of improving child nutrition, a survey by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has revealed. In Zimbabwe, child nutrition improved slightly between 1994 and 1999, but then deteriorated through 2003. Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique continue to have "unacceptably high rates of malnutrition". Swaziland had the lowest rates of child malnutrition in the region, but in some parts of the country the deterioration was rapid. Only Lesotho showed any improvement between 2000 to 2002, according to UNICEF. "National averages hide large sub-national differences, with some districts showing significant improvement, while others have deteriorated," UNICEF said. Younger children and orphans were the hardest hit, and the overall rate of derioration was worse in urban/peri-urban areas rather than the countryside. HIV/AIDS correlates positively with the deterioration of nutritional status. Among the recommendations by UNICEF were: the strengthening of nutrition surveillance systems in all southern African countries, the launching of further studies into the impact of HIV/AIDS, and a continued and strengthened UN-coordinated response to the humanitarian crisis.