On March 1st, the Center for African Studies and Institute for Sustainable Food Systems held the Health in Africa Symposium The symposium, titled, “Livestock, Sanitation, Hygiene, and Child Growth: Exploring the Complex Underlying Causes of Child Stunting,” covered topics including diet, nutrition, epidemiology, livestock systems, child growth, and intestinal health.
The symposium engaged with multiple lines of inquiry surrounding the interaction of livestock, hygiene, sanitation, and child growth. Undernutrition is an underlying cause of nearly half of all deaths among children under five, and, in Africa, nearly one third of children are chronically undernourished. Chronic malnutrition—as indicated by stunted growth—is not completely reversed by 40% of growth faltering—is subclinical gut disease and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED). Though EED is associated with unsanitary environments, interventions designed to interrupt these pathways have not shown any additional benefit to child growth, underscoring the need to investigate the role of livestock on the landscape.
Speakers at the symposium included Aulo Gelli (International Food Policy Institute), Wondwossen Gebreyes (Ohio State University), Arie Havelaar (University of Florida), Derek Headey (International Food Policy Research Institute), Mark Manary (Washington University), Sarah McKune (University of Florida), Jemal Yousuf (Haramaya University), and James Platts-Mills, MD (University of Virginia).