Malnutrition is the insufficient, excessive or unbalanced consumption of nutrients. According to the United Nations, malnutrition kills 10 children every minute. More than a quarter of children in developing countries are underweight and suffer disease because of their poor diet, and in some areas, almost half of all under-fives are malnourished.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) cites malnutrition as the gravest single threat to the world's public health. Improving nutrition is widely regarded as the most effective form of aid. Emergency measures include providing deficient micro-nutrients through fortified sachet powders such as peanut butter or directly through supplements.
Long-term measures include investing in modern agriculture in places that lack them, such as fertilisers and irrigation, which largely eradicate hunger.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warns that the slow progress in reducing nutritional problems among children means that several key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets may now be missed. According to Ann Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, "The lack of progress to combat malnutrition is damaging children and nations. Few things have more impact than nutrition on a child's ability to survive, learn effectively and escape a life of poverty".
The first MDG, agreed by the world's leaders, pledged to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015. For the MDG to be met, countries need to reduce rates of undernutrition by an average of 2.8 per cent a year.
To improve on the nutrition and health status of women and children in the Tolon-Kumbungu District of the Northern Region, the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Billy Williams has inaugurated a GH¢37,723 Nutrition Centre at the King’s Village Medical Centre at Bontanga.
The centre, which is equipped with a storage facility for grains such as maize, Soya beans and groundnuts, as well as other facilities such as places of convenience and bath house, was financed by the Australian Government through its Direct Aid Programme (DAP).
In his inaugural address, Mr Williams observed that the project was a clear manifestation of existing relationship between Australia and Ghana.
He announced that a number of Ghanaian students had benefited from scholarship programmes this month and urged Ghanaians to take advantage of the many fellowship programmes put in place by his country for workers in the mining and agricultural sectors.
“The Australian High Commission is committed to projects that assist local community development; this is my first visit to the Northern Region and this opportunity will enable me to interact with the various communities where our projects are being implemented” Mr Williams stated.
The Project Manager, Dr Opoku Mensah, said King’s Village Ghana was a Christian organisation that is committed to addressing the fundamental needs of the rural poor. He said the organisation was into education, healthcare, water, sanitation, as well as the promotion of hygiene.
Dr Mensah entreated the Australian Government to help provide the King’s Village Medical Centre with a neo-natal intensive care unit and maternity home to help reduce infant and maternal mortality rates.
The District Director of Health Services, Madam Denisia Agong-Kaara, noted that the district recorded a malnutrition rate of 42 per cent among children and further explained that malnutrition affected children’s immune system and Intelligent Quotient (IQ).
Madam Agong-Kaara therefore, expressed gratitude to the Australian Government for providing the facility, which he said would ultimately enhance the nutritional status of children in the area.
The Tolon-Kumbungu District Chief Executive,Mr Idd-Manzah Mahama,pointed out that the district was deprived, as a bulk of the assembly’s expenditure that was mainly donor-driven went into providing educational and health infrastructure.
According to him, the district equally committed a significant portion of its resources into supporting tertiary students who hailed from the district.
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