It will take a healthy and skilled workforce to put Africa on the recovery path after COVID-19, a senior executive at the African Development Bank (AfDB) has said. 

Martha Phiri, AfDB’s director of human capital, youth and skills department, also said it’s a healthy workforce that shall move the needle in transforming the continent and the quality of life of its people. 

Phiri made the remarks in a statement that announced that at least ten countries are to benefit from the bank and its partners’ programme aiming at reducing child stunting in Africa. 

The bank’s partners include the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Big Win Philanthropy and Nutrition International under a project dubbed Banking on Nutrition Partnership. 

The partnership aims to generate long term economic growth for Africa by investing in “Grey Matter Infrastructure". 

These countries shall benefit from the bank and its partners’ Multi-Sectoral Nutrition action plan that was launched in 2018. 

The plan seeks to leverage additional financial resources through nutrition smart investments across sectors such as health, agriculture, sanitation, hygiene, social protection and education to support a 40% stunting reduction across the continent by 2025. 

The countries include Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Madagascar, Kenya, Burundi, Mali, and Burkina Faso. 

The countries were selected using the bank’s Grey Matter Infrastructure Investment Index, a criterion based on country rankings centred on their stunting burden and borrowing headroom. 

A statement issued by these organisations indicated that malnutrition continues to rob generations of Africans of the chance to grow to their full physical and cognitive potential, hugely impacting health outcomes and economic development. 

“In 2020, 61.4 million African children were registered as stunted, with Africa being the only region where the number of stunted children has risen, and 40% of all stunted children in the world live on the African continent. 

When we have a practical result driven success story based on partnership, it is important to showcase it,” Zouera Youssoufou, Aliko Dangote Foundation’s chief executive said. 

“The value of the Partnership is for all of us to come together and look at how to incorporate nutrition more deliberately as part of a comprehensive protective wall of immunity around people from the inside and out,” Joel Spicer, the chief executive officer of Nutrition International said. 

The Partnership’s effectiveness has already been demonstrated through numerous initiatives and programs such as support for Ethiopia’s Seqota Declaration, a commitment to end stunting in children under two by 2030. 

The AfDB approved $48m (about sh160b) in funding for the Government of Ethiopia’s Multi-Sectoral Approach for Stunting Reduction Project (MASReP). 

Banking on Nutrition Partnership has already integrated nutrition into 18% of AfDB projects, with 21% of project interventions prioritizing focus on women and children.