A new report by the African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) ranks Ethiopia at the bottom in Africa in access to improved sanitation facilities.
The war-torn South Sudan, Chad and Madagascar have performed better than Ethiopia because 10% of their total population have access to improved sanitation facilities, according to the first continental Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard launched this afternoon in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at Sky Light Hotel.
Ethiopia is ranked 54th out of the 54 Africa countries as only 7% of its total population have access to improved sanitation facilities. The governments of Seychelles and Libya have managed to provide access to improved sanitation facilities to 100% of its population, according to the scorecard.
Egypt, Mauritius and Tunisia have ranked 2nd by providing access to improved sanitation facilities to 93% of their population.
Based on their performance, the scorecard labelled countries in three zones – red, yellow and green. Including access to improved sanitation facilities, the scorecard looked at twelve indicators including.
This includes, access to clean drinking water, per capita income and percentage of children under 5 years old who are stunted for all Ethiopia is categorized in the red zone, which means among the countries not making progress to improve the situation.
The data-based advocacy tool used by the scorecard aims to give an overview of how African leaders are doing on their delivery of the main nutrition indicators. It is expected that the scorecard will increasingly be used to track Africa’s effort to halt malnutrition and its effects.
The preparation of ALN Continental Nutrition Accountability Scorecard brought together the African Union, King Letsie III of the Kingdom of Lesotho, the African Development Bank, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The launching themed, “A Call for Better Advocacy and Accountability for Nutrition Investments,” is chaired by, King Letsie III and African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.
Reports show that one is five in Africa are hungry. The scorecard shows that 58.8 million of children in Africa under 5 years old are stunted. In Ethiopia 38% of the children are suffering from stunting, according to the report.
“The red color shows that we are nort making progress. The scorecards speaks to our mind. If you listen very carefully you will hear the voice of those children crying,” Adesina said.
“Stunting alone cost Africa billions of dollars. Africa loses $25 billion every year due to malnutrition…Nothing is worse than liveing below ones potential,” Adesina said, indicating that investing on better nutrition is key for African leaders to have their citizen utilize their potential and become competent globally. “…I see hope for millions of children,” said Adsina.