Achieving Healthier Diets midst Africa’s Rapid Urbanization

5 October 2022. Dialogue #4 Nutrition and Food Security Dialogue #4: Africa’s Rapid Urbanization and Growing Middle Class: Challenges and Opportunities to Achieving Healthier Diets and Optimal Nutrition. 

Download the Concept Note and Agenda.

Today, Africa faces rising trends in overweight and obesity among children, youth, and adults. 

By December 2023, the prevalence of obesity among adults in 10 high-burden African countries is expected to range from 13.6 to 31 percent, while in children and adolescents it will range from 5 to 16.5 percent . 

In 2021, 25 African countries were off track to meet the World Health Assembly target of having no increase in childhood overweight while no country was on track to halt the rise in adult obesity. Furthermore, obesity and diet-related chronic diseases have been associated with greater vulnerability to COVID-19. 

All this has compounded the scale of malnutrition that African countries face as they have to deal with the triple burden of malnutrition—the co-existence of undernutrition with overnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. It has also resulted in significant healthcare costs and productivity losses to individuals and society as a whole. 

Dialogue #4 allowed participants to review recent trends and patterns in urbanization, dietary changes, and the growing overweight and obesity levels in Africa. 

Participants also reflected on the causes and consequences of the shifts in dietary patterns as well as challenges and opportunities to achieving healthier diets and optimal nutrition. The dialogue explored the required priority actions including policy and regulatory options for urgently addressing malnutrition in all its forms and for promoting healthier diets and lifestyles especially in key sectors like health, agriculture, and urban planning.

• Moderator: Dr. Aisha Musaazi Sebunya Nakitto, Dean and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, Victoria University, Kampala, Uganda
• Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairperson, AKADEMIYA2063Ms. Estherine Lisinge-Fotabong, Director of Program Innovation and Planning, Africa Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)
• Keynote Presentation: Africa’s Rapid Urbanization and Growing Middle Class: Challenges and Opportunities to Achieving Healthier Diets and Optimal Nutrition Prof. Amos Laar, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, University of Ghana

Panel Discussion

• Dr. Paulina Addy, Director, Women in Agricultural Development Directorate, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana
• Dr. John Ulimwengu, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He shared the resource: Effects of combined traditional processing methods on the nutritional quality of beans
• Mr. Pierre Ndiaye, Director General, Mamelles Jaboot, Senegal
• Prof. Amos Laar, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, University of Ghana
• Closing Remarks - Ms. Aminata Diop Ndoye, Executive Secretary, National Council for Nutrition Development, Senegal

Previous webinar:

Dialogue #3 of the Nutrition and Food Security Dialogue Series organized by AKADEMIYA2063 and the Conseil National de Développement de la Nutrition (CNDN) on the “Impacts of the Russia-Ukraine War on Nutrition, Food Security, and Poverty in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities to Building Resilient Food Systems”.

In case you missed it, please take a few moments to read the key takeaways of Dialogue #3 and watch the fully recorded event.