IRIN Report: Malnutrition persists alongside Mozambique’s economic growth

MAPUTO, 4 March 2013 (IRIN) – Mozambique has seen economic growth between seven and eight percent during the last two decades, yet over half the population continues to live below the poverty line. Rates of stunting and chronic malnutrition among Mozambican children have shifted little in the past decade, falling from 48 percent in 2003 to 43 percent today.

Carlos Castel Branco, an economist and researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE) in the capital, Maputo, said that while long-term, significant and sustainable improvements in nutrition and poverty levels are difficult to achieve without economic growth, they will not necessarily result from economic growth either. Read More ▶