Measuring African high burden countries’ progress towards the adoption of national nutrition targets

In 2012, the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution which established six global targets to be achieved by 2025. In 2016, countries attending the Assembly reitarated their commitments and agreed to set national targets in line with national contexts in order to achieve greater progress towards global nutrition targets. The establishment of national targets can help set into motion a comprehensive planning process that identifies concrete actions and resources to effectively translate commitments into results.

This scorecard highlights where high burden countries in Africa stand in the adoption of national nutrition targets. In general, the picture for African high-burden countries is mixed: more countries need to integrate national nutrition targets in their national policies or to improve them. Countries are progressing towards meeting the WHA global targets for stunting and for breastfeeding but progress towards reducing wasting remains dramatically insufficient in the continent concentrating the highest number of wasted children under five.