Effects of Climate change on malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa: A short literature review

Summary

The influence of climate change on child malnutrition is evident and documented in scientific research. The transformational 2030 Agenda for sustainable development calls for global efforts for mitigation and provide enabling adaptation mechanism through partnership for the implementation of sustainable development goals. There is a need for government and stakeholders to re-orient and re-strategize their action to complement all efforts and to combat climate change inversely mitigating its effects on child malnutrition.

Introduction

Human health is inextricably linked to our environment, the effects of climate change on our environment have both direct and indirect consequences on our health. According to the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), Climate change is defined as: “A change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use”(1). Changes in the climate are estimated as increases in warmth, droughts, changes in rainfall patterns, etc. The effects of these changes influence land degradation, and agricultural productivity and reduce freshwater resources  (2). In sub-Saharan Africa, projected impacts of climate change will affect many regions negatively in varying degrees. Reduction of surface water in arid regions can largely be detrimental to the population where small reductions can be relatively large (3). These consequences of climate change severely affect low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa whose economy depends mainly on agriculture. This reduces food availability, accessibility, and availability. These pathways indirectly affect child nutrition and predispose children to malnutrition, most notably stunting, wasting, and undernutrition.

Stunting is the most prevalent form of malnutrition which begin from the uterus to early childhood and can lead to physical and cognitive disability. In 2020, 149.2 million children suffered from stunting globally, out of these two out of five live in Africa (41%). Undernutrition is one of the largest negative health impacts of climate change and predominantly affects low-income countries (4). The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has outlined 17 goals and 169 targets for sustainable development which cannot be entirely separately achieved. Goals 2, 3, 13, 14, 15, and 17 of the SDG are very important for combating climate change, end hunger, and promote good health and wellbeing(5). This review intends to examine the research question: Does the effects of climate change influence Malnutrition status of children in Sub-Saharan Africa? This research question is relevant to highlight and inform the urgent need for action to mitigate the effects of climate change on malnutrition of children in sub-Saharan Africa with evidence from literatures. 

Methods

During this literature review collection of evidence was done systematically on different databases. The databases used to collect literature are Pubmed, Scopus, web of science, google scholar, google search engine, etc. With the help of Boolean operators, truncations of common search terms were replicated in these search engine's examples. Climate change AND health, climate change + malnutrition, climate change effects on health*. This produce 294 results initially; this was sorted according to the relevance of the study and geographical area of concern. Duplicates of results were removed from the list and eventually 14 literatures were included in this review. Studies that did not provide enough information on health were removed from the list of literatures. This review did not employ guidelines such as the STROBE checklist for scientific papers, which is a limitation of this review. The assistance of a librarian for the literature search was not sought to identify potential databases for the review.

Findings

Extreme weather events such as prolonged droughts and flooding reduce the availability of food in affected geographical areas thereby exposing millions of children to malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa (2). A study of climatic variability and child weight in 16 African countries indicated that both increased temperatures and low precipitations are associated with reduced weight and height of children (6). Climate change and global warming at 2 degrees Celsius in the midterm undermined food security and nutritional diet in sub-Saharan Africa. This will exacerbate the pressure on food security risk leading to malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies in sub-Saharan Africa (7). It is estimated by the year 2100, child wasting will increase by 37% in Africa due to high temperatures which are harmful to child weight (8). The undernourished population in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase due to climate change compared to a future without climate change by 2050. Severe stunting is estimated to increase between 30 – 50% (9). Africa is not on course to reach the UN SDG 2 Zero hunger by 2030 from a predictive model. Child malnutrition will increase by 20% due to climate change and other determinants by 2050 (10).

Food production shortfalls caused by climate variability may increase food prices severely affecting poor households in sub-Saharan Africa. This will have an effect on food affordability and food intake causing malnutrition (11) and micronutrition deficiency in children. Malnutrition of mothers and breastfeeding women is a risk factor for social deprivation causing premature birth, low birth weight, and child mortality (12) due to their vulnerability to infectious diseases. The global syndemic of climate change and malnutrition contributes to the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children. However, changes in our transport systems, agriculture, and food could mitigate climate change and reduce malnutrition significantly (13). The Lancet Commission suggest triple-duty actions such as environmental sustainability, nutritional education, and dietary guidelines to improve nutrition at a societal and individual level (14). To achieve these actions and policies of government and partners need to complement each other.

Conclusion

This review has found strong evidence of the effects of climate change on malnutrition leading to stunting, wasting, undernutrition, and micronutrient deficiency. These effects, directly and indirectly, cause child morbidity and mortality. The impact of climate change undermines the environmental and social determinants of health which increases health inequalities within and among populations. Further, the review reveals that the policies and actions of players in climate change and health are in disarray causing implementation gaps to significantly reduce the impact of climate change on malnutrition. Therefore, the urgent call by the UN SDG 13 to combat climate change and its impact strongly require the need for partnership. This will mitigate the effects of climate change on malnutrition for greater achievement of SDG goals. Further research is needed to examine climate change and health policy implementation gaps to mitigate the negative health effects of climate change causing malnutrition.

Reference

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