Nutrition and Health: Preliminary Findings from Round 4 in Ethiopia

This fact sheet presents preliminary findings from the fourth round of the Young Lives survey of children in Ethiopia in 2013. It reports on some of the changes that have taken place in key nutrition indicators for our sample children over the eleven years since the first round of data collection in 2002. We see how children?s growth trajectories develop over time: around 30% of the Young Lives children continue to show signs of stunting (chronic malnutrition) with higher rates among the poorest children and in rural areas. Another indicator of malnutrition is thinness ? experienced by 40% of the Young Lives children at age 12. In terms of food diversity, children are consuming on average 4 of the possible 7 food groups, and food insecurity has fallen slightly among Young Lives households. Access to safe sanitation has increased considerably, from 22% in 2002 to 63% of households in 2013, although access to safe drinking water has fallen from 53% to 45% over the same period mainly due to ageing infrastructure.