Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
WHO Regional Nutrition Plan for Europe is strongly focused on overnutrition and associated
non-communicable diseases with only a passing mention on preventing undernutrition.
The strategy's main aim is to “avoid premature deaths and significantly reduce the burden of
non-communicable diseases, obesity and all other forms of malnutrition prevalent in the WHO
European region.”The European region has the highest rates of non-communicable diseases of
the six WHO regions; accounting for 77% of the disease burden and almost 80% of all
premature deaths. Some countries within the region (including Tajikistan, see case study) are
affected by the double burden of under and over nutrition. In the region, 57% of all adults over
2 0 are overweight or obese and rates of obesity are increasing very quickly especially in
Eastern Europe where rates of obesity have tripled since 1980. Overweight and obesity in
children is also increasing, especially in Southern Europe, affecting those from lower
socioeconomic groups. Micronutrient deficiencies, particularly iodine and iron, remain a
challenge for some in the region, especially among vulnerable populations.
The WHO Regional Action Plan for Europe aims to provide countries with a comprehensive
and coordinated plan for countries to adopt their own action plans and policies to improve
food systems, reduce nutritional risks and improve people's nutrition throughout the life
course with a specific focus on the burden of NCDs.
The guiding principles of the strategy include:
1. Reducing inequalities in access to healthy foods. Policies need to focus on improving the
key elements of availability, affordability and acceptability of healthy diets for the most
vulnerable groups and populations, specifically focusing on equity.
2. Ensuring human rights and the right to food. In order to achieve the right to food, a right
which has been institutionalised in the constitutions of many countries, requires a
sustainable, equitable and resilient food system which tackles both supply and demand
side of the food system.
3. Empowering people and communities through a health-enhancing environment. People
should be empowered to promote policies that create healthy food environments and
encouraged to take action around these issues.
4. Promotes a life course approach to nutrition, starting from maternal nutrition considering
the nutrition needs of pregnant women, encouraging healthy diets for children and young
people and ensuring the elderly are able to meet their nutritional needs.
These guiding priorities are used to define specific objectives which include: creating healthy
food and drink environments, promoting a healthy diet for the most vulnerable throughout
their life course; strengthening health systems to ensure they are able to promote healthy
eating and nutrition and that people are able to access health care for non-communicable
diseases; improving surveillance, monitoring, evaluation and research and adjusting existing
monitoring systems to ensure that they are fit-for-purpose; and finally strengthening
governance for nutrition at all levels of government and engaging with networks such as the
European salt action network and the European network to reduce marketing pressures on
children (World Health Organization Europe 2014).
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