Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
al. (2015] underscore that educational materials - tailored to the audience - need to be given
to mothers and their families to improve the quality, quantity and frequency of meals.
Messages related to the detrimental role of “junk food”on young children development need to
be given to a wide range of local actors as part of community-level strategies.
Areadiness analysis - conducted as part of the above mentioned landscape analysis - showed a
“general willingness to participate in any activities that will see nutrition actions scaled up”
across different stakeholders. The analysis mapped a wide range of nutrition actions that were
already undertaken, proving a lot of wide ranging commitment. However, the analysis also
found that none of these activities were operating at scale to reach the wider population,
which is largely based on to the predominantly curative approach to nutrition problems, at the
expense of preventive activities. This issue was also noted by the COHE in 2013. One of the
clear recommendations of the study was to refrain from viewing chronic child undernutrition
as a sectoral concern, and to make stunting prevalence rates a “key outcome indicator for
social and economic development policies” which is tackled across numerous sectors (COHE
2013, p. 50].
The issue of the high number of scattered programs across the country was also confirmed in
the expert interviews that were conducted for the present report. Experts firmly believe that
key issues of malnutrition in Egypt relate to poverty as well as to the awareness about what
constitutes nutritious food. Poor households are more likely to rely on subsidised food, often
bread, but even where food budgets are low, better choices could be made. In order to achieve
change in people's awareness of and perception of nutritious food, a WFP programme
currently piloted in one of the poorest governorate, Sohag, take these issues into account. WFP
works together with ministries in a cash transfer program based on antenatal care attendance.
Female participants receive food basket vouchers and recommendations for healthy food
during their pregnancy and the first two years of the child. This will be complemented by
awareness and education campaigns with educational videos in primary health care centres in
the communities and in public spaces. In addition to nutritional issues, these messages will talk
about the role of mental health, the role of fathers, and also target adolescents. Another project
aimed at changing people's attitude towards 'good food' and to move families away from
cheaper fast food is the recipe series for Egyptian dishes that are both nutritional and to the
taste of the population.12 This type of programme is directly related to the sentiments also
related by stakeholders in the landscape analysis, in that lifestyle and dietary habits need to
change across people of all walks of life. It also speaks to one of the key recommendations of
COHE (2013], which was focused on communicating nutritious low budget foods for behaviour
change.
By providing financial resources to mothers, cash transfer programmes can increase food
security and access to nutritious foods. However, in the context of readily available energy-
dense foods, cash transfers may in fact reinforce obesity and overweight in Egypt. Aitsi-Selmi
(2009] suggests that increased income and adult health knowledge caused by the design of
Egypt's conditional cash transfer programme may offset the latter's negative impact through
poor diets. It follows that combining such conditional cash transfer programmes with wide-
ranging behavioural change communication (BCC] actions, and possibly the reorientation of
the current food subsidy towards ensuring access to healthy foods (through e.g. vouchers]
could maximise the beneficial role of social protection on malnutrition (Asfaw 2007].
12World Food Programme’s (WFP] recipe series, FamilyChef; e.g
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