Sub-Saharan African countries have recorded poor statistical indices of nutritional progress more than any other continent, except in a few cases when compared with some Asian countries. High incidences of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality have dotted the landscape in this region, with myriads of challenges. Poor maternal and infant nutrition have been associated directly and indirectly with high incidence of maternal death in pregnancy and during child birth.

This is also a major cause of low birth weight, which contributes significantly to child morbidity and mortality, with subsequent poor cognitive development. A poorly developed mindset contributes positively to the burden of economic woes because of poor economic production capabilities. In addition to these, the scourge of HIV/AIDS has greatly influenced maternal and child nutrition.

Although the requirements to improve the nutritional status of these vulnerable groups are within the reach of countries in this region, there are socio-economic, political, bio-social and some natural impediments that create inundating challenges. Improved management of resources, understanding of nutrition as a national developmental issue, development of the agricultural sector, manpower development in the field of nutrition, good governance and zero tolerance for corruption are the basic ingredients required to overcome these challenges.

Issues relating to maternal and infant nutrition are not sincerely considered as priority in some developing countries. When one considers specific actions to improve maternal and child survival, one is drawn to particular interventions, which includes vaccination, oral rehydration therapy and the treatment of infection and haemorrhage. In recent years, this portfolio of responses has broadened to embrace the health system including human resources, financing and stewardship. Somehow, nutrition is managing to slip through the unfilled gap of achieving a total success in health care.

Issues for Consideration

Although nutrition is a major risk factor for major childhood diseases, it is yet to be accorded the attention it deserves. Research has shown that nutrition is usually influenced by five interrelated factors: political instability; poverty/inequality; ineffective development policy; climate and environmental change; and inadequate and poorly administered food security, health prevention, and well designed and implemented nutrition programmes.

Many of the countries with high or stagnant stunting levels are among the most fragile politically. It is envisaged that if public-health experts and policymakers could package the evidence showcasing the importance of maternal and child nutrition, catalogue the long-term effects of under-nutrition on development and health, identify evidence-based interventions to reduce malnutrition, and call for national and international actions to improve nutrition for mothers and children, there will be some palpable level of improvement in nutritional care for mother and child.

The impact of high food prices on maternal and child nutrition may signal the return to an era of food insecurity. More recent evidence from developing country settings confirms that rapid increases in food prices cause maternal and child malnutrition levels to rise relatively rapidly, with first effects seen in the mother [3]. Women and children who have special nutritional needs are particularly at risk, with negative implications in terms of maternal health and well being, as well as the survival, growth and development of children [1]. Maternal malnutrition, poor foetal growth and stunting in the first two years of life lead to irreversible damage across the course of life, including shorter adult height, lower attained schooling, reduced adult income and decreased offspring birthweight [2]. Furthermore, deterioration in the quality of the diet causes the damage even before food shortages become pronounced. Even small variations in the micronutrient content of diets during pregnancy are associated with significant differences in foetal and infant growth.

Causative Factors

The nutrition conceptual framework originally developed by UNICEF [5] was proposed as a tool to help orientate problem solving discussions at all levels, including the community level, and in so doing to help to elucidate what the local coping strategies are. The conceptual framework includes three levels of causality. The immediate causes of malnutrition are inadequate dietary intake and disease, operating in a synergistic fashion with infections being more common in those with malnutrition and also contributing to the development of poor nutritional status. The underlying causes at household and community level concern access to food, health and environmental sanitation services and maternal and child caring practices. Each of these three clusters of factors is an essential but alone insufficient condition for achieving nutrition security. The basic causes operating at the societal level include availability of natural resources, national income, education and the adequacy of national infrastructure and governance mechanisms. In other words, the distribution of wealth, income and political power is the ultimate cause of nutrition outcomes.