NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 23 — Over 374 million of taxpayers’ money is spent annually due to cases of child undernutrition, statistics has shown.
The funds are sent through a cash transfer program dubbed Nutrition Improvement Through Cash and Health Education (NICHE) and policy interventions to deal with the same.
Child undernutrition remains one of the greatest challenges for improved human development.
In Kenya 1 in every 4 children under five years is facing stunted growth. The main issue being that far too many children are unable to access and effectively use at all times the food and health services they need.
“As a country we have a stunting rate of 26 per cent. This means their short for their age not just physically but also intellectually,” Veronica Kerogo, Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at MoH, said during a session with journalists in Naivasha on Saturday.
NICHE cash programme is coordinated by the Directorate of Children’s Services and implemented collaboratively with the five county governments of Kitui, Kilifi, Marsabit, Turkana and West Poko. The program is undertaked by the Health Ministry and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with Technical Assistance from UNICEF.
“We work closely with the Ministry of Health to offer support through NICHE as well as county government because health is a devolved function. We are targeting livelihood improvement in the country,” said Bitengo Stephanie, a member secretariat at National Social Protection.
The 5-year programme started in 2019 seeks to reach 23,500 households by 2023 with provision of additional Sh500 per month per child below 2 years and a maximum of Sh1,000 per month for 2 beneficiaries per household.
“We are focusing on children under two years and much so the lactating women because we are targeting 1000 days from the time a woman conceives and when they attain 2 years if we don’t intervene at that period after 2 years and a child has malnutrition, the deal is done,”Kerogo said.
A 2020 report by World Bank on Human Capital Index indicated that the country’s index is 0.55 which potentially means that a child born in the country will only attain 55 per cent of their maximum productivity.
“That’s a great concern and that why at the MOH the project. We know those targeted, the actual beneficiaries their comes from countries who drive our nutrition indicators are very high,” Kerogo said.
In 2014, it was estimated that 12.9 million of the working age population (15-64 years old) suffered from undernutrition before reaching five years.
This represented 41.4 per cent of the working age population who were in a disadvantaged position compared to those who were not undernourished as children.
Further, undernutrition can be associated with low progression in education system, with only 3 out of every 10 learners enrolled in grade 1 progressing (pass level) to Form Four. This can be attributed to low cognitive skills.
Through the NICHE program and child policy interventions they seek to reduce prevalence of stunted and underweight children by half (50 per cent) of their 2014 values.
In the case of Kenya, this would mean a constant reduction of 1.2 percentage points annually in the stunting rate from 26 per cent (estimate in 2014) to 13 per cent in 2025.
This is an ambitious target, considering that the average annual rate of stunting reduction between 2005 and 2010 was estimated at 0.52 per cent.
In addition, underweight rate would be reduced from 11 per cent in 2014 to 5.5 per cent in 2025, meaning a constant annual reduction of 0.55 percentage points. Under this scenario, the cost could decrease by up to 49 per cent by 2025 compared to the values in 2014.
