UNICEF says that 7.3 million Nigerian women are undernourished.

UNICEF says that 7.3 million Nigerian women are undernourished.  Nigeria's number of undernourished girls and women ages 15–49 has g...

UNICEF says that 7.3 million Nigerian women are undernourished.

 Nigeria's number of undernourished girls and women ages 15–49 has gone up from 5.6 million in 2018 to 7.3 million in 2021.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund released a global report on the food and nutrition crisis on Tuesday. The report says that Nigeria is one of the 12 countries that are being hit the hardest by it.

Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen are at the center of a global nutrition crisis. Recent effects of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, as well as ongoing drought, conflict, and instability in some countries, have made the problem worse.

The UNICEF report, "Undernourished and Overlooked: A Global Nutrition Crisis in Adolescent Girls and Women," was released before International Women's Day. It warns that the ongoing crises, which are made worse by never-ending gender inequality, are worsening a nutrition crisis among adolescent girls and women that haven't gotten better in the last 20 years.

"This nutrition crisis is pushing millions of mothers and their children into hunger and severe malnutrition," said Catherine Russell, the head of UNICEF.

If the international community doesn't act quickly, the effects could last for generations to come."

According to the report, which is a first-of-its-kind and comprehensive look at the nutrition of adolescent girls and women around the world, more than a billion adolescent girls and women suffer from undernutrition (such as being underweight or short), lack of essential micronutrients, and anemia, which has terrible effects on their lives and health.

The 2022 National Food Consumption and Micronutrient Survey shows that 55% of adolescent girls and women in Nigeria have anemia and that nearly 50% of Nigerian women of reproductive age do not eat the recommended amount of at least 5 out of 10 food groups (grains and tubers, pulses, nuts and seeds, dairy, meat, poultry and fish, eggs, dark green leafy vegetables, other vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, other vegetables, and other fruits).

"Inadequate nutrition during a girl's or woman's life can lead to a weakened immune system, poor cognitive development, and a higher risk of life-threatening complications, even during pregnancy and childbirth. This puts mothers' lives at risk and has dangerous and irreversible effects on their children's ability to live, grow, learn, and make money in the future.

"For example, in Nigeria, malnutrition causes 12 million children under the age of five to be stunted, which means they are too short for their age. According to a new analysis in the report, about half of them become stunted during pregnancy and the first six months of life. This is the 500-day period when a child is completely dependent on its mother's nutrition.

Russell said, "To stop children from being undernourished, we also need to deal with malnutrition in teenage girls and women."

According to the report, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remain the places where adolescent girls and women are most affected by the nutrition crisis. There, two out of three adolescent girls and women are underweight, and three out of five adolescent girls and women have anemia.

At the same time, teenage girls and women from the poorest homes are twice as likely to be underweight as those from the richest homes.

Women continue to have a harder time getting healthy food because of global crises.

In 2021, 126 million more women than men will be hungry, compared to 49 million more in 2019. This more than doubles the difference between men and women when it comes to hunger.

In Nigeria, the government's 2022 Cadre Harmonise analysis shows that 17 million people have very little food, and this number is likely to rise to 25 million during the lean season this year.

Since 2022, UNICEF has done more to help countries like Nigeria that are hardest hit by the global nutrition crisis.

The report asks governments, development and humanitarian partners and donors, civil society organizations, and development actors to change the food, health, and social protection systems for teenage girls and women.

Cristian Munduate, the country representative for UNICEF in Nigeria, said, "If we want our children to have a better future, we need to make sure that adolescent girls and women have access to healthy food and essential nutrition services."

The nutrition crisis among them is getting worse, and all partners, including the government of Nigeria and the rest of the world, need to act quickly. We can't ignore this crisis, and we need to work together to change the food, health, and social security systems for teenage girls and women.