Ensuring South Africa’s future by breaking the cycle of undernutrition
When it comes to malnutrition, South African children are divided between two extremes: underweight and overweight. Childhood obesity in the country has reached one in eight children in 10 years, while one in four children in South Africa is stunted as a result of poor nutrition. A situation analysis report, conducted by Unicef, found that only 21% of South African children under five receive a minimum acceptable diet, and 29% are defined as stunted.
Image credit:Soweto Graphics on Unsplash
Yet millions of South Africans regularly tip leftover food in the dustbin or think nothing of going out for a restaurant meal or a takeaway.
At the same time, many South Africans respond to the daily signs of poverty by making regular or ad hoc donations, whether through contributions to causes at checkout tills, support for church feeding schemes or helping the people around them.
Targeted solutions would help to improve the effectiveness of this generosity.
What is stunting
Stunting is established when children are not provided with adequate nutrients during the most critical developmental phase, the first 1,000 days of life.
In the womb, it is often the result of the mother being undernourished, in poor health, or an adolescent.
While the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends breastfeeding for newborns, after six months, breast milk alone is insufficient.
Children require their diets to be supplemented by nutritious complementary foods (cereals, fruits, vegetables and proteins).
When this supplementation is poor or non-existent — which happens for one in four South African children — stunting becomes irreversible.
Childhood stunting is defined as being too short for one’s age.
Against the WHO’s Child Growth Standard, stunted children are two standard deviations below the median — basically, they can be up to 15 cm shorter than they should be.
Stunted children may have lost up to 40% of their potential brain development in the first three years of their life. They are more likely to get sick and die from common illnesses.
Stunting leads to irreversible physical and cognitive impairment, increased risk of death and long-term disadvantages, such as potential learning difficulties and lower earning potential as adults.
All this takes its toll on the individual and the broader socio-economic environment.
How to help
As an organisation involved in childhood nutrition, we held a series of focus groups with consumers in Cape Town, who were 25 years and older, middle to upper income, and both regular and occasional givers.
It must be emphasised that this was not an extensive or statistical survey. It was merely intended to gauge this group of consumers’ understanding of poverty issues and attitudes towards giving.
These participants indicated a sense of being overwhelmed by the extensive, deep-rooted and multidimensional needs of South African children.
They felt that systemic poverty has a range of consequences, from hunger and neglect to exposure to violence.
Some of the factors they cited as key to proper childhood development were adequate nutrition, proper housing and shelter, safety and protection and structure, whether family or school structure.
They felt that giving children a nutritious meal should be a basic human right in a country like South Africa.
Our focus group also showed that South Africans are very willing to donate, but they want to be able to donate in a way that is quick, easy and in a safe environment, e.g. at a checkout till rather than, say, personally making peanut butter sandwiches and giving them directly to recipients.
They want transparency: it must be clear that the organisation to which they donate will channel the funds to the recipients, and there will be no misuse of funding.
While the South African government allocates R1.5trn of the National Budget (2025/26) to social services, of which almost one-third (R420.1bn) is on social development (mainly grants), it is clear this is not going far enough.
It needs to be supplemented by additional efforts. Many excellent NGOs involved in early childhood development and feeding schemes could benefit from more resources.
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Nutrient supplements
We have identified a clear need for a targeted intervention to address the nutritional needs of children between six and 23 months of age.
One of the globally recognised solutions is WHO/Unicef-aligned lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS-MQ) used in programmes for children aged 23 months to six.
These are often distributed by UN aid organisations in a variety of contexts, from war to natural disasters and, of course, communities where chronic undernutrition is prevalent.
It is important that these sachets are distributed to NGOs that specifically serve children in the relevant age group, rather than to households directly, to avoid misuse and wastage.
When we break the cycle of undernutrition and help children grow up normally, we give them a chance to break out of the cycle of generational poverty.
These children are South Africa’s future, and we need them to have the best start in life so they can grow up into responsible and capable adults.
About the author
Jenny Martin is the MD of Compact Food Solutions