“Don’t Distribute Free Food … Improve Our Dietary Diversification Knowledge and Skills”: Borderlanders’ Perceived Root Causes of Malnutrition in Kagera Border Region, Tanzania

Abstract

Nutrition is a very important component for the growth and development of any society, specifically for the prevention and control of a range of diseases. In Tanzania, despite a great variability of nutrition status by different characteristics, generally the majority of the populations have poor nutrition. Kagera is among the 26 regions of mainland Tanzania with a total projected population of about 2.5 million. The nutrition status among residents is poor with multifactorial determinants. In this paper, we present qualitative data collected using in-depth interviews with key adult men and women informants in the four Tanzania-Uganda border districts. The main objective was to establish possible causes of the reported low nutrition in Kagera Region. Majority of study participants were affirmative of the availability and plenty of food; the main problem being poor dietary diversification knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices. They recommend various measures that could improve the current nutrition status. These measures include nutrition education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels; health education at health facility level that will include nutrition topics and peer education at community level; introduction of nutrition bylaws in the community and vitalizing peer education social groups among males and females about the importance of dietary diversification. Therefore, future nutrition research should include culture, religion, and traditional indicators to inform food and nutrition interventions and policy in similar populations to the Tanzania-Uganda borderlanders.