Highlights from IFPRI Egypt-NNC seminars to support “The 100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative”
September 17, 2019
Aula Ali - IFPRI Egypt office intern
Habiba Hassan Wassef - Health and Nutrition Policy in Sustainable Development Researcher, National Research Center
Sahar Zaghloul - Vice President, National Nutrition Committee
Clemens Breisinger - IFPRI Egypt Country Program Leader
Why nutrition matters: Nutrition has become a higher priority for many governments and people around the world – including Egypt - in recognition that ending malnutrition in all its forms will catalyze improved outcomes across the SDGs. Research has shown that malnutrition reduces productivity and negatively affects health outcomes, which leads to lower economic growth and increases public and private health care costs, both public and private (The Lancet). Egypt is among the countries with the highest “double burden of malnutrition”, the coexistence of undernutrition along with overweight and/or obesity. More than every fifth child under the age of 5 is stunted (too short for their age), whereas 15 percent of children and more than half of women are overweight or obese. Malnutrition is prevalent not only among the poorest household, or in some specific geographical areas, but equally among poor and rich households, as well as in rural and urban areas, and Upper and Lower Egypt (DHS 2014).
The 100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative: Within a number of initiatives and actions aiming at improving health and nutrition in Egypt, President El Sisi has launched the “The 100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative” (100MHLI) is led by the Ministry of Health and Population and aims to raise the awareness of Egyptians to the importance of their health and nutrition, and for concerned decision makers to appreciate the prevalence of viral hepatitis C infection and of the targeted diet and lifestyle related chronic non-communicable diseases.
What has been done so far in Egypt? Under the title of “The 100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative: Lessons learned and actions for improving nutrition in Egypt” the third seminar brought together representatives of sectors and institutions who have programs that contribute to improving nutrition. [1]
A principal actor is the National Nutrition Institute (NNI) responsible for supporting the "100 Million Healthy Lives" campaign with training of the personal involved in the screening of school children for anemia, stunting and obesity. The NNI monitors the nutritional status of the population and provides nutrition consultations and promotes nutritional well-being for all age groups. In addition to their role in promoting nutrition sensitive food systems, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) runs a longstanding program that targets rural mothers and their children for improving the quality and safety of family meals and for promoting healthy eating habits with a focus on feeding practices of infants and children. MALR is also a supplier of nutritious snacks in the government’s school feeding programme. An ongoing research and development programme aims at increasing the consumption of dates by children, in recognition of their nutritional value. The Ministry of Supply and Internal Trading’s (MoSIT) continues to work towards increasing the nutritional quality of a better targeted food subsidy system and focuses on the affordability of food supplies, and educating consumers to allow them to read expiry dates and the content of the food they consume. The Ministry of Social Solidarity’s (MOSS) Takaful and Karama cash transfer program has proved to increase household income with cash transfers increased consumption of fruits, meats and poultry. The Ministry of Education provides school meals and snacks within a national school feeding programme, as well as health and nutrition education to mothers and school children and training on proper nutrition for teachers and supervisors. The Chamber of Food Industries (CFI) provides the platform that links scientific research to the food industry and supports their contribution to the school feeding programme. The CFI campaign “Your Health is in this Box” aims to eliminate microbial contamination in milk through safe packaging. The specialized technical committees of the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS) are responsible for developing quality and safety standards and specifications for food. Other than setting Egyptian standards for foods for the school feeding programme, the EOS is responsible for the standards for foods of special dietary use, in particular for foods used in complementary feeding of infants and young children. The “Guidelines for the Young Consumer” is a recent initiative of the EOS.
What are the recommended actions for supporting the 100 million Healthy Lives initiative: based on the existing data and research and on experts and policy makers that attended the joint IFPRI Egypt - NNC seminars, the following actions are recommended:
- Make policies more nutrition sensitive: Examples include reforming food subsidies away from focusing on calorie-heavy items (bread, sugar, vegetable oils etc.) towards giving beneficiaries healthier food choices, such as vegetables, fruits and dairy. Agricultural policies like the fertilizer subsidies and agricultural research priorities should be reviewed in order to include a stronger focus on healthy foods rather than focusing on cereals.
- Continue and expand the ongoing awareness campaigns. Educating consumers is among the most important measures using both traditional as well as innovative channels to convey nutrition knowledge to all people. Civil society can support government efforts in raising nutrition awareness. The example of Food Watch NGO in Europe was presented as a success story that can possibly be adapted in Egypt as well as other countries in the region.
- Incentivize the private sector to produce and market healthier affordable foods. In addition to educating consumers, producers should be involved in more responsible marketing and food production, for example through social responsibility and incentive programs.
- Promote nutrition research to make nutrition policy more effective and efficient. Increase data collection, sharing and access among ministries, research institutes and other stakeholders. Educate and promote more nutrition professionals to help implementing the nutrition agenda at all levels.
- Strengthen the National Nutrition System and its stewardship. (ref: Egypt Landscape Analysis Report 2012) The current fragmentation in the nutrition system diffuses responsibility, as no single entity is responsible to manage all relevant stakeholders and coordinate the interventions of implementing partners. Successful examples from other countries strongly support the establishment of a supra-ministerial Food and Nutrition Security Coordinating Committee for Egypt to work in tandem with a powerful National Nutrition Committee.
The current political energy around nutrition non-communicable diseases through the 100 Million Health Presidential initiative is a great opportunity to address the double burden of malnutrition in Egypt. This opportunity should not be wasted, it’s time to act now.
[1] In order to provide scientific evidence to support the 100 Million Health initiative, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with the National Nutrition Committee (affiliated by the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology) have organized a series of three seminars as part of the IFPRI Egypt Seminar Series . The IFPRI-Egypt Seminar Series is part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded project called “Evaluating Impact and Building Capacity” (EIBC) that is implemented by IFPRI. In addition to establishing a “nutrition baseline” in seminar 1 and seminar 2, the 3rd seminar identified several key drivers of malnutrition and gave examples of the contribution of a number of key sectors to the realization of the national nutrition goals.
