25% of Africans undernourished

2004-08-19 09:12

Washington - African countries must feed the continent's estimated 200 million people suffering from hunger in order to maintain economic growth, a research institute said on Wednesday.

"Hunger and malnutrition are among the biggest constraints to economic growth in Africa, as they drain the productivity of its people," the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said in a report.

"Only when African nations have secured their basic food and nutritional needs will they experience sustained economic growth and prosperity," the report says.

The report says an estimated 200 million Africans, or one quarter of the continent's population, are undernourished. Their number has grown by 20% since the early 1990s.

"African governments should take the lead in efforts to reduce malnutrition on the continent," Todd Benson, one of the report's authors, said in a news conference.

To that end, African countries should increase agricultural production and improve health care, he said.

"Education, particularly of girls, is critical. The more they know about proper nutrition and health care, the more healthy the children will be," Benson said.

IFPRI was founded in 1975 to seek food policies that would help developing nations.

"To end hunger in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, it is estimated that the region must attain a 3.5% annual average growth rate in per capita gross domestic product (GDP)," the report says.

"In the past decade, however, only half a dozen countries had growth rates above 2.5%." - AFP

- SAPA