The Unsung Heroes Fighting Malnutrition | Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju | TED

Africa Needs More Meat: Addressing Stunting and Nutrition

The Surprising Call for More Meat in Africa

• The speaker, a lifelong vegetarian, emphasizes the need for more meat in Africa to combat stunting, surprising her devout Hindu family who reveres cows.

Understanding Stunting and Its Impact

• Stunting is described as a quiet crisis marked by lower height for age, affecting nearly seven million children in sub-Saharan Africa over two decades.

• It not only impacts physical growth but also underdeveloped brains, leading to learning difficulties and increased healthcare costs due to higher infection risks.

• Stunting costs Africa approximately $25 billion annually, significantly hindering the continent's progress.

The Role of Animal-Sourced Foods

• The speaker argues that addressing stunting requires focusing on milk and meat as they provide essential nutrients like complete amino acids that are scarce in plant-based diets.

• While acknowledging environmental concerns about meat consumption in the West, she advocates for a modest increase from the current average of 12 kilograms per person per year sourced from pastoralists.

Pastoralists: Key Players in Sustainable Production

• Pastoralists are identified as crucial to scaling up sustainable milk and meat production across Africa despite facing significant challenges such as resource disputes and climate change effects.

• A personal anecdote about Lady Kilena, a Maasai pastoralist whose livestock suffered during drought highlights the struggles faced by these communities.

Rethinking Support for Pastoral Communities

• Traditional aid efforts have been reactive; instead, there’s a call to empower pastoralists as rational business people with economic insights rather than providing handouts.

• Collaboration between companies and pastoralists is encouraged through supportive policies and better data investment to enhance their participation in modern economies.

Bridging Gaps Between Pastoralists and Markets

• Current market dynamics disadvantage pastoralists who receive low prices from middlemen while processors sell at much higher rates.

• Tes Gabru's innovative model at Luna Export Abattoirs exemplifies how treating pastoralists as equal partners can improve their income while ensuring humane practices in livestock processing.

Conclusion: A Path Forward for Pastoral Economies

The Role of Pastoralists in Africa's Economy

Government Policies and Their Impact on Pastoralism

• The success of programs supporting pastoralists is heavily influenced by government policies, which often favor farming over herding, neglecting the importance of pastoralists to both the economy and society.

• Some African countries, like Namibia, have implemented progressive policies that support pastoralists, including a ban on antibiotics and hormones to prevent medication overuse in livestock.

• Namibia's reforms led to significant achievements such as becoming the first African country to export beef to the United States and other international markets.

Economic Benefits for Pastoralists

• The reforms in Namibia have not only boosted exports but also improved the livelihoods of pastoralists, allowing them to raise higher-quality animals and earn an average income equivalent to $2,500 per year from meat sales.

• Despite these successes, many countries are slow to adopt similar reforms due to a lack of reliable data on pastoralist communities and their livestock.

Importance of Data for Policy Development

• Accurate data is crucial for governments to develop effective policies; without it, navigating towards better outcomes for pastoralists becomes challenging.

• There is a need for mapping resources such as migration routes and livestock concentrations to facilitate disease surveillance programs and improve business operations related to meat processing.

Resilience and Innovation Among Pastoralists

• The resilience and creativity of pastoralist communities are evident through innovative practices that blend modern veterinary techniques with traditional knowledge. An example includes a Kenyan pastoralist using local materials creatively for animal care.