From Sunday 22 June to Thursday 26 June, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Nutrition for Development’s Co-Chairs, David Mundell MP and Steve Race MP, and Vice-Chair, Monica Harding MP, visited Tanzania to see first-hand the impact of UK overseas development in treating and preventing malnutrition and to understand the work of national and regional government, scientists, health workers, humanitarian organisations, charities, civil society, local businesses, and local communities. Lord Oates, Chief Executive of United Against Malnutrition and Hunger (UAMH), which provides the Secretariat for the APPG, also joined the visit.
There has been strong in-country leadership and commitment to tackling malnutrition, including through the National Multisectoral Nutrition Strategic Action Plan, which has led to progress, particularly in addressing the challenge of undernutrition in children. However, the triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, micro-nutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity) remains a significant public health problem in Tanzania, particularly among pregnant women and children. One in three children under five is stunted, 600,000 children under five are wasted, one in sixteen babies have low birth weight, and two in five women aged between 15 and 49 years are anaemic.
ANH Academy Week
As a result of the APPG’s strong partnerships with UK institutions working to address global malnutrition and food insecurity, members of the APPG were invited to Tanzania by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to join the 10th annual Agriculture, Nutrition and Health (ANH) Academy Week Conference (ANH2025) in Dar es Salaam co-hosted by LSHTM and Sokoine University of Agriculture, with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The ANH Academy Week brings together a community of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working at the intersection of agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and health to foster knowledge exchange, innovation, learning, and uptake of interdisciplinary research with an aim of driving change to make food systems more sustainable, equitable, and to improve nutrition and health through impactful action and collaboration. Opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of Tanzania, Hon. Dr Doto Mashaka Biteko, over 1,500 participants from more than 50 countries came together for ANH2025, exemplifying a powerful convergence of political will, regional leadership, and a vibrant global community with a shared vision.
The delegation joined the ANH2025 programme a various moments throughout the week including for the opening and closing plenaries – the latter at which David Mundell MP spoke – for an engaging panel discussion on strengthening policy action at the intersection of agriculture, health, and nutrition – at which Lord Oates spoke – and for poster sessions across a range of themes, such as microcosms of ultra-processed foods dominating local food environments in Ghana, the right to food and nutrition in South Africa, and regional governance coherence across Sub-Saharan Africa for reducing stunting. At the heart of ANH2025 was the importance of collaboration and interconnectedness across agriculture, health, and nutrition to address global challenges and ensure everyone can afford and access a healthy diet while sustaining a healthy planet, which was underscored throughout the full programme.
In the margins of ANH2025, the delegation was able to meet with some of its participants, including the Deputy Prime Minister, LSHTM’s Director, Professor Liam Smeeth, panellists from the policy sessions, representatives from Sokoine University of Agriculture, led by the dynamic Joyce Kinabo, ANH Academy’s key African partners, and representatives from the Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and FCDO. The group were also able to meet with the British High Commissioner, Marianne Young, who spoke at the ANH2025’s opening ceremony, and her team, who provided an update on FCDO’s development work in Tanzania, with a particular focus on nutrition and clean energy transition.
Project visits
Outside of ANH2025, the delegation was able to visit some projects and organisations working specifically on addressing malnutrition and food insecurity in Tanzania.
In Dar es Salaam, the delegation met with World Food Programme (WFP) Tanzania at Kibasila Primary School to see how their clean cooking transition in schools project is helping schools shift from traditional firewood stoves to safer electric pressure cookers, supported by the FCDO under the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme and through Sustainable Energy for All. Launched in 2024 by the President, H.E. Samia Suluhu Hassan as part of Tanzania’s drive towards meeting Sustainable Development Goal 7 on affordable and clean energy, the National Clean Cooking Programme set an ambitious goal of achieving 80 per cent clean cooking access by 2034. About 99 per cent of government primary schools with feeding programmes still rely on traditional cooking techniques – such as firewood or charcoal – which are directly associated with negative environmental, health, nutrition, economic, educational, and social effects. Kibasila Primary School recently became the first among 50 schools in Tanzania to make the transition, and the delegation was able to meet with its inspiring headteacher, Rehema Rukumbwe, to hear how using electricity for cooking has made meal preparation easier and healthier. The delegation was also able to meet with pupils attending the school and participate in their lunch service.
Also in Dar es Salaam, the delegation visited Sanku’s Nutrient Premix Blending Factory and Flour Bag Factory in Dar es Salaam to see first-hand how they are equipping local millers to deliver life-saving nutrients through flour fortification. Co-founded by social entrepreneur Felix Brooks-Church in 2013, Sanku’s ‘dosifier’ fortifies every bag of flour sold by local millers by adding a measured dose of vitamins such as B12, zinc, folic acid, and iron. The process is supported by a business model ensuring that small, local flour mills can use the dosifier at no extra cost to themselves or their customers as a result of Sanku purchasing flour bags cheaply in bulk, then selling them to the millers at market price, with the margin enough to cover the small cost of the added nutrients. Sanku currently reaches 15.8 million people with fortified flour across East Africa, with an aim of reaching 25 million by the end of the year and 100 million people by 2030.
Members visited the food chemistry, biochemistry, and microbiology laboratories at Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC) headquarters in Dar es Salaam where researchers and technicians, led by the incredible Dr Germana Henry Leyna, work with the Ministry of Health to ensure a coordinated, effective, and efficient approach to tackling malnutrition in Tanzania.
The delegation also visited the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) East Africa Hub in Dar es Salaam, a non-profit institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. Working with various partners across sub-Saharan Africa, IITA improves livelihoods, enhances food and nutrition security, increases employment, and preserves natural resource integrity. It is one of 13 international research centres that make up the One CGIAR, a global partnership working towards a food-secure future for all. At the Hub, the delegation was able to hear from Frederick Baijukya and colleagues about their work to transform food systems and improve nutritional outcomes including through a cassava breeding programme, a youth-led awareness programme, marine-based nutrition solutions supported in part by FCDO, and work to reduce aflatoxin.
Finally, in Dar es Salaam, the delegation was able to receive a briefing from Action Against Hunger Tanzania Mission, led by their inspiring Country Director, Zacharia Imeje, on their vital work to treat and prevent undernutrition and malnutrition in the country, and on policy change, climate smart and nutrition sensitive agriculture, supporting mothers and children, and health system strengthening.
Outside of Dar es Salaam, the delegation was able to make a short visit to Zanzibar. Zanzibar has made significant progress in improving nutrition in the last 25 years with a significant reduction in the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children under five. However, despite this commendable progress, malnutrition remains a significant public health concern on the archipelago, particularly among pregnant women and children under five. Many communities face challenges in accessing preventative health and nutrition services, contributing to poor maternal and child health outcomes. Limited awareness of optimal health, hygiene, and nutrition practices at the household level further compounds the problem, often resulting in preventable illnesses and growth failure among young children. There is an urgent need for outreach initiatives that bring essential services closer to communities, while also building knowledge and encouraging behaviour change.
To address these challenges, UNICEF is supporting the implementation of ‘Village Health and Nutrition Days’, integrated outreach events across Zanzibar that deliver a comprehensive package of preventative health and nutrition services directly to communities. These include growth monitoring, nutrition assessments, antenatal care for pregnant women, deworming, vitamin A supplementation, immunisations, and hygiene education. They are implemented quarterly by community leaders with support from community health workers, health facility service providers, and other community networks in all villages (shehia). They also allow residents to assess the health and nutrition status of their shehia and agree on practical actions to address identified gaps, improving access to services, promoting behaviour change, and generating regular data to support more responsive planning and resource allocation at shehia, district, and regional levels. The delegation was able to observe a ‘Village Health and Nutrition Day’ in Donge Shehia and to speak with some of the recipients and health workers.
Delegation visits also provide opportunities for Parliamentarians to meet and make connections with their counterparts in other countries. This enables cross-country learning, the sharing of best practice on how to advocate for solutions to end malnutrition, and allows for further exploration of how the UK can best support investment in and action on global nutrition and food security.
During this visit, APPG members were able to meet with Neema Lugangira, a Tanzanian Member of Parliament and champion on global nutrition whom they last met in March at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in Paris, to continue discussions on collective efforts to tackle global malnutrition and food insecurity. Neema also spoke at the ANH Academy Week, sharing perspectives on equity across agri-food systems.
In Zanzibar, the delegation also met with Hon. Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, Zanzibar’s Minister of Health, to understand more about Zanzibar’s ongoing preventative health strategies, including scale-up of Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) – which is driving real, scalable impact, driving progress in maternal nutrition and putting and children at the centre of progress – and engagement on the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF). For example, a successful project in Pemba reached over 16,000 pregnant women with essential services, including MMS, which has led to the Ministry of Health calling for 100 per cent national scale-up coverage of this package of essential maternal nutrition interventions, including full MMS scale-up and enrolment in the CNF.
Parliamentary delegations to high burden countries are vital to the work of the APPG, enabling Members to understand more about the global state of nutrition and see first-hand the impact of malnutrition as well as local solutions to address malnutrition and food insecurity. The delegation was honoured to meet many inspiring and dedicated people during the visit, to hear powerful testimonies from those affected, and to celebrate the incredible work of healthcare professionals, scientists, researchers, educators, regional and national governments, NGOs and civil society, and other partners who are the backbone of the response.