‘Short people stunt economy’

MBABANE – If your height is anything less than 1.69 metres, your growth is stunted (short for your age) and chances are, your productivity at work is heavily compromised.

Stunted people are reportedly costing Swaziland millions of Emalangeni, due to alleged underperformance. At least 270 000 adults of working age in Swaziland are stunted, a condition caused by chronic under-nutrition and acute malnutrition from the womb and at childhood. These account for more than 40 per cent of the labour force.
As a consequence of their under nutrition in childhood, they are not able to work and reach their full potential.

This is the alarming conclusion of a new study titled The Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA), Swaziland which  was undertaken over a period of three years beginning in 2009. Using data from that year, the study measured losses to the Swazi economy caused by child under-nutrition, in particular the effects of stunting or chronic malnutrition.

Stunting, or being short-for-age, is a result of a failure to receive adequate nutrients including proteins, vitamins and minerals, while in the womb or in the first years of life. People affected by stunting are more likely, in later life, to be sickly, to perform poorly at school or drop out of classes, to be less productive at work and to die early.

According to the study, child malnutrition costs Swaziland millions of Emalangeni, due to higher health costs, lower educational achievement and less productivity in the workforce. It is estimated that in 2009 alone, at least E466 million was lost in the country due to lower workforce productivity. In rural Swaziland, where most people are engaged in manual activities, it is estimated that in 2009 alone, at least E126 million worth of productivity were not produced due to lower physical capacity of this group. There is also an estimated 37 million working hours which were lost in the same year due to people who never entered the workforce as a result of nutrition-related mortalities (deaths).

This represents E340 million, which is equivalent to 1.4 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP was estimated at around E25 billion. The study estimated that child under-nutrition generated health costs equivalent to 0.6 per cent of the total public budget allocated to Health, and that only three out of every 10 children are estimated to be receiving proper health attention.  The study further demonstrated that nearly one in every 10 reported deaths of children was associated with malnutrition.

With regard to education, the results showed that 18.9 per cent of underno-urished children repeated grades, as compared to 14 per cent of non-undernourished children, meaning 4.9 per cent of grade repetitions in school are associated to child malnutrition.

Some of the key findings of the study indicate the need for scaling-up current interventions and developing inno-vative solutions to fight child undernourishment in Swaziland.

The COHA study in Swaziland was led by the National Children’s Coordination Unit in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office, with support from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Central Statistics Office, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, Swaziland National Nutrition Council (SNNC), University of Swaziland and the World Food Programme (WFP) Swaziland. It underscores that malnutrition is not just a health issue, but an economic concern as well.  It presented an opportunity to better understand the role that child nutrition could play as a catalyst for social and economic transformation, and human develo-pment. 

In Swaziland the results of the study strongly suggest that, to achieve sustainable human and economic growth, special attention must be given to addressing nutrition in the early stages of an individual’s life.

It was the first COHA study in Southern Africa and among the first to quantify the social and economic impacts of child under-nutrition.

NB: The 1.69 metre height was not part of the study. It was taken from world human heights acceptable standards and data for South Africa was used.

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