Chronic shortage hampers nutrition

Health minister Dr Bernard Haufiku has expressed his shock and disappointment at the fact that there are only five qualified nutritionists serving government hospitals.

Citing an assessment done in 2013, Haufiku said it was unacceptable that the country only had five qualified nutritionists in state hospitals.

“The assessment done by the ministry in 2013 on human resources shows that Namibia only has five qualified nutritionists serving all 14 regions. This is a drop in a vast ocean we call Namibia and is unacceptable,” said Haufiku.

The minister was speaking at the signing of an agreement between the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef) on Tuesday.

Haufiku said the country needed to employ more nutritionists in order for the country to meet its nutrition objectives.

“The ministry of health alone requires 46 dieticians and 24 nutritionists according to a new proposed ministerial structure,” said Haufiku.

He added that the country has very good policies and strategies to address inequalities but lacked proper implementation at various levels as well as national coordination.

“We can only realise proper implementation of these policies if we have skilled power and capacity in the country and there is coordination,” said Haufiku.

Michaela Marques De Sousa, Unicef country representative, said nutrition was the foundation of sustainable development.

She also highlighted one of the main reasons why nutrition is such a challenge in Namibia was because there of a lack of nutritionists in the country.

“One of the key bottlenecks to scaling up nutrition in Namibia is absence of trained human resources in nutrition,” said De Sousa.

SHONA NGAVA