Child Nutrition and Development
Despite historic progress, Tanzania faces a growing triple burden of malnutrition which limits children’s development potential.
Context
Children, adolescents and women in Tanzania are facing a growing triple burden of malnutrition – including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity – which is threatening the country’s human capital potential and future development.
Over the last 30 years, Tanzania has made commendable progress in reducing the prevalence of stunting among children under five; however, more action is needed to accelerate progress to reach the SDGs targets. More than 3 million (30 per cent) children under 5 still suffer from stunted growth, whereas 1 in 2 children (53 per cent) 24-59 months are also developmentally “off-track” in health, learning, and psychosocial well-being leaving them at risk of not developing to their full potential. Nurturing care practices of early stimulation, responsive caregiving, positive parenting and male involvement in childcare remain suboptimal. While national wasting and underweight prevalences for children under five sit at 3 percent and 12 per cent respectively, these numbers present a bigger challenge in Zanzibar with 8 per cent of children suffering from wasting and 15 per cent from underweight. Micronutrient deficiencies remain a public health concern, particularly unacceptably high rates of anaemia among both children under five (47 per cent) and pregnant women (44 per cent). Meanwhile, overweight and obesity has finally arrived as a serious challenge, especially among adolescent girls and women living in urban areas.
In addition to suboptimal multisectoral nutrition services and poor nurturing care practices, this triple burden is fueled by a food system that is simultaneously failing to provide accessible, affordable, and desirable nutritious diets while also being flooded by unhealthy ultra-processed products high in salt, sugar, and/or fats.
Where this is most noticeable is the dietary deprivation in early childhood, where more than 2.4 million (81 per cent) children 6-23 months are living in child food poverty and consuming less than 5 food groups a day. Most concerning is that nearly one in four children 6-23 months (22 per cent) are living in the severest form of child food poverty, meaning that 630,000 children are consuming 0 to 2 food groups a day.
UNICEF in action
Over the past decade, the government has significantly advanced nutrition and ECD governance through strong political commitment from the highest levels and multisectoral collaboration. UNICEF Tanzania has worked closely to support government partners in the development, implementation, and monitoring of the current National Multisectoral Nutrition Action Plan (NMNAP) II 2021/22 - 2025/26 in Mainland, the Zanzibar Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Action Plan (ZMNSAP) 2024/25 - 2028/29 in Zanzibar, and the National Multisectoral ECD Programme (2021/22–2025/26) in Mainland. All provide unified and costed frameworks for multisectoral engagement for improved child nutrition and development.
The large numbers of children and adolescents of today will soon become the future of Tanzania tomorrow. Healthy, well-nourished children and adolescents—able to learn, grow, and reach their full cognitive development potential—will enable Tanzania to turn its rapid population growth into a demographic dividend as they engage in the economy of the future and participate meaningfully in society.
Rooted in our ten-year UNICEF Nutrition Strategy 2020-2030, and the UNICEF Early Childhood Development Vision for Every Child, the Child Nutrition & Development Section at UNICEF Tanzania is working towards a vision where children, adolescents, and women in Tanzania are well-nourished and developmentally on track to live healthier and more productive lives. To holistically address this growing triple burden of malnutrition and poor child development outcomes, our strategy is to enhance the consumption of nutritious diets, utilization of equitable quality multi-sectoral nutrition services, and adoption of nurturing care practices that support optimal nutrition, growth, and development in both Mainland and Zanzibar.
*All data listed is from the most recent TDHS2022