"In the Presidents' Debate which has more than ten African Presidents, our President has been given the task of being the leader of the team in managing the problem of malnutrition and stunting in poor countries when she got the chance to speak with ‘big win Philanthropy' who agreed to help the President Hon. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan in carrying out this work. This task force has started to do the work to come up with scientific answers that she will work on", explained Mr. Waibe.

The director said that last year's 'demographic' statistics showed that Tanzania has a 30 percent stunting rate and those statistics are what made the country get the aid quickly because that kind of country cannot develop if it has 30 percent of people who cannot contribute to the national economy.

He added that this challenge is what pushed Hon. Samia to find the correct scientific answers to the causes and indicators of the problem in the country considering that a region like Iringa which has all kinds of food and a good climate but it leads to more than 50 percent stagnation.

"The problem is not limited to Iringa but all regions of the Southern Highlands and Hon. Samia asked herself about the agreements she signed with the regional commissioners and the resources she is providing to fight this problem but it is still not working. So she saw that there are reasons to get a team of Tanzanian experts who will give her the right answers so that they can help her know what exactly needs to be done to end the problem in the country as the Bank of African Development and other stakeholders would provide her with money, then she decided to announce the tender to experts and various institutions who would do it and SUA won to do the work and Hon. Samia is eagerly waiting for the answers", explained Mr. Waibe.

He congratulated SUA for winning great work for the country and thanked them for accepting the government's request to cooperate with other institutions in doing the work, believing that they will come up with a plan and the right answers that the country will use to solve the challenge of malnutrition and stunting in the country.

For his part, the Lead Researcher of the task force from the Department of Food Sciences and Consumer Studies (SUA), Prof. John Msuya said that the research will be conducted in six regions of Mainland Tanzania which are Mtwara, Geita, Njombe, Dar es Salaam, Tabora and Iringa and two regions of Tanzania Zanzibar which are North Unguja and North Pemba.

He said that the regional elections have taken into account the major changes in the problem seen in the reports of 2015 and 2022 where there are regions that have succeeded in reducing the problem in that period and others have increased so there is something to learn from successful regions and those that have fallen.

"If you look at the information in 2015, Mtwara region had a 38 percent unemployment rate but in 2022 they have reduced it to 22 percent, in the North from 34 percent in 2015 to 21 percent in 2022 but if you look at Dar es Salaam, the unemployment rate has increased from 15 percent in 2015 to 20 percent. 18.40 in 2022, Iringa from 42 percent in 2015 to 56.90 percent in 2022 while on the side of Zanzibar, North Unguja rising from 23 percent in 2015 to 29 percent in 2022", explained Prof. Msuya.

He said that the team of researchers is going to look at two main things that are researching whether child care can be the cause of malnutrition and stunting in the selected regions, another big thing is to identify and analyze the patterns and behaviors that cause malnutrition and stunting in those regions.

Giving greetings of the University, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Planning, Finance and Administration Prof. Amandus Muhairwa on behalf of the Vice Chancellor Prof. Raphael Chibunda said that the training aims to enable all the participants of the exercise to have the best and correct methods of collecting research information to achieve the government's goal of classifying the causes of poor nutrition in the country and he hopes to use that knowledge in developing plans and strategies to eradicate that problem.

"This training is a continuation of the government's good intention to improve the nutritional status and reduce stunting in our children under the age of five, a situation that is holding back the health and development of our people", said Prof. Muhairwa

Prof. Muhairwa used the opportunity to assure the government as the main supervisors of the research to do the special National work of the Hon. President Samia Suluhu Hassan for the professionalism and quality required so that the nation can get rid of the big problem for its citizens.

Deputy Vice Chancellor for Planning, Finance and Administration Prof. Amandus Muhairwa giving greetings from the university.

The Task Force includes five experts from SUA; one from the Ifakara Health Institute; eight senior officials from the Ministry of Health; Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries; the Institute of Nutrition and Food; eight other participants for the collection of information in collaboration with experts and government officials and the Office of the President TAMISEMI.

A photo of the Participants of the Training

A group photo of the Guest of honor with the team of nutrition and food experts who make up the national team.