The Cost of Hunger in Africa: the Social and Economic Impact of Child Undernutrition in The Gambia

Rome (Italy): World Food Programme (WFP), 2020.

English

82 p.

WFP094

The findings of The Gambia COHA study underscore the importance and implications of undernutrition for the country’s long-term national development. The report highlights the importance of nutrition in human capital development and by extension the socio-economic transformation of the country. It particularly demonstrates that for children, undernutrition has adverse implications for health and school performance while for workers it reduces productivity and ultimately earnings. The combined effect of these consequences is a cycle of poverty that undermines not only national development but also the continental and global development efforts. The Gambia COHA report estimates the associated cost of undernutrition to the economy through health, education and labour productivity in a single year. For The Gambia, the total losses associated with undernutrition in 2018 (base year for analysis) are estimated at GMD 3.96 billion or USD 83.4 million which equivalent to 5.1 % of GDP. This is based on the estimation of the model on the current population that identifies the percentage of that population who were undernourished before the age of five, and then estimates the associated negative impacts experienced by the population in the year of analysis. The report finds that positioning nutrition interventions as a top priority for human capital development has a lasting effect on the socio-economic development of a country.

Electronic ed.

Public

WFP/E 094

eng

MON-017430