The invisible crisis on Africa’s plate fueling hidden hunger

Across Africa, millions of children go to bed with full stomachs but undernourished bodies.

They eat enough cassava, rice, maize, yam or other staple foods to satisfy hunger, yet many remain dangerously short of the vitamins and minerals needed for healthy growth, learning and productivity.

Unlike famine, this crisis is largely invisible. There are no haunting images of empty plates or severely wasted bodies. Instead, there are children who struggle to concentrate in school because they lack iron, pregnant women battling anaemia, and workers whose productivity is reduced because their diets fail to provide the nutrients their bodies require.

Nutrition experts call it hidden hunger, and increasingly, economists say it is becoming one of Africa’s least discussed barriers to economic growth.

According to estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Global Nutrition Report, about 1.9 billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the heaviest burden, with West and Central Africa accounting for more than 45 percent of the region’s micronutrient deficiency burden.

The challenge extends beyond health. Poor nutrition affects educational outcomes, weakens labour productivity, increases healthcare costs and slows economic development. A child who is unable to develop cognitively because of chronic iron deficiency today may become a less productive worker tomorrow.

The numbers tell a troubling story.

Regional nutrition data show that anaemia affects 69 percent of children under five in Nigeria, 60 percent in Ghana, 72 percent in Côte…