Adolescent girls vulnerable to malnutrition – report – SciDev.Net Southeast Asia and the Pacific

[BANGKOK] A new global report indicates that progress in reducing malnutrition has been slow and unevenly distributed, with adolescent girls remaining particularly vulnerable.

The 2018 World Nutrition Report, published on November 29 at a high-level conference on malnutrition, shows that girls aged 15 to 19 are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, obesity and the resulting health problems because of their higher iron requirements resulting from early menstruation and pregnancy.

"Adolescence, when girls are growing up in adulthood, is a crucial step in life where you can step in. If you can delay early marriage for a year or two, girls can be better educated and reduce the risk to their health. "

Hazel Malapit, IFPRI

It is estimated that 95% of teenage births take place in developing countries and that 19% of young women become pregnant before the age of 18, the report says.

The prevalence of anemia among girls and women aged 15 to 49 years remains high at around 33%, up from 32% in 2000. The obesity rates for teenagers aged 10 to 19 have increased every year to reach 4.7% in 2016.

"Adolescence, as girls grow to adulthood, is a crucial step in life where we can intervene," says Hazel Malapit, Senior Research Coordinator at the International Institute for Policy Research. (IFPRI). SciDev.Net. "If you can delay early marriage for a year or two, girls can be better educated and reduce the risk to their health."

Awareness of the importance of adolescent health and nutrition has been reflected in the action program launched at the 2017 World Nutrition Summit in Milan, which aims to bridge the gap between nutrition of women and girls. "Call for Action for Adolescent Nutrition: Better Data Now to Drive Better Policies and Programs in the Future" was launched in Geneva in June 2018.

Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of the group of independent experts who produced the new report and director of the Center for Food Policy at the University of London, said SciDev.Net that no country is on track to meet the nine global targets for malnutrition, which include reducing anemia by 50 percent in women of childbearing and decaying age. the progression of obesity.

"The uncomfortable question we are asking this year is not so much" Why are things so bad? But, "Why are not things better when we know more than before? "She adds.

Regions like the Pacific Small Island Developing States are fighting the double burden of high rates of malnutrition and obesity, says McDermott, director of agricultural research for nutrition and health at the Advisory Group. for international agricultural research, a global partnership of researchers SciDev.Net. "Some of the highest rates of obesity, especially among women, are found in the Pacific," he added.

McDermott says that nutritional results may be faster than economic results, as in Bangladesh's impressive performance compared to that of India, which is lagging well although it is about An economic engine. "We think that in the case of Bangladesh, gender is one of the important parts of this [success]. Many things focus on things like: how do you work with women? How do you give them different powers according to the agencies? "

This article was produced by SciDev.Net's Asia and Pacific office.