Nutrition related non-communicable diseases and sugar sweetened beverage policies: a landscape analysis in Zambia

Figures & data

Table 1. Type of stakeholder, number of respondents and number of non-respondents by sectoral interest

Type of stakeholder	Sectoral interest of respondents who agreed to interview (n = 10)	Sectoral interest of respondents who did not agree to interview (n = 7)
National government -health	Public health (n = 2)	Government health (n = 2)
Civil society organization	Nutrition advocates (n = 4)	Government, economic/industry sector (n = 3)
National government -economic (Multi-sectoral)	Government economic sector (n = 3)	Government, agriculture sector (n = 1)
Industry	Industry (n = 1)	Government, education sector (n = 1)

Table 2. Current policy content in relation to nutrition and NR-NCDs in Zambia by sector

Document/report	Year	Content in relation to nutrition and NR-NCDs
Whole of government
Vision 2030 [28]	2006	The Government aspires to have a well-nourished population by strengthening nutrition care practices for vulnerable groups, including young children, adolescents, women in the reproductive age, and HIV/AIDS infected, and those affected by NCDs like diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, and cancer.
7^th National Development Plan [17]	2017–2021	Public health will be strengthened by implementing programs aimed at promoting the maintenance of clean and healthy environments and good nutrition. Efforts will be exerted towards reducing the incidences of NCDs.
Health sector specific
National Health Policy [29]	2009	Particularly for NCDs, the policy objective is to prevent or delay the onset of NCDs and their related complications in order to enhance quality of life of the population.
National Health Strategic Plan [30]	2017–2021	A key shift in strategy will be to ensure that nutrition interventions are embedded in the overall plan that addresses diet-related NCDs. The Government has committed itself to establish and strengthen multisectoral plans and policies and plans for the prevention and control of NCDs.
The National Food and Nutrition Commission strategic plan [18]	2015	The strategic plan sets priority areas for government, stakeholder, donor, and partners’ spending in order to firmly position nutrition on the developmental agenda and to effectively commit predictable resources for addressing the challenges of malnutrition in Zambia (page 2). It promotes sustainable production, processing, preservation, storage, consumption and marketing of variety of food crops (especially legumes, vegetables, and fruits), fish, and livestock.
NCD Strategic Plan [19]	2013–2016	Government plans to raise the priority accorded to the prevention and control of NCDs in the national agenda through advocacy and multi-sectoral partnerships; develop and implement a national multisectoral policy and plan for the prevention and control of NCDs through multi-stakeholder engagement; and establish a National NCD Task Force to deal with the complexity of NCDs (trade, commerce and advertising, human behavior, health economics, food and agriculture systems, unhealthy commodities to children and limitation of industry self-regulation).
Agriculture sector specific
National Agriculture Policy [31]	2015	Government has declared agricultural development as a priority in poverty reduction and food insecurity and it is committed to increasing the agriculture budget allocation.
Education sector specific
School Health and Nutrition Policy [30]	2006	Government planned to promote and improve nutrition status of learners in order to enhance and sustain their physical, social and mental well-being; promote and maintain the health status of learners through the initiation of effective health promoting activities; provide health and nutrition education and promotion of activities at all levels of the education system.
Economic and industry specific
Zambia Industrial policy [21]	2018	Government plans to make available funds that will stimulate growth in the industrial sector: The Trade and Industrial Development Fund will support growth oriented Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in high growth sectors including agro-processing, manufacturing, tourism, gemstones and infrastructure development.
2019 Budget Statement [10]	2018	Government introduced an excise duty of 30 ngwee per liter on non-alcoholic beverages. Government plans to take appropriate fiscal measures to protect local manufacturing of non-alcoholic beverages from unfair competition while discouraging import dependence.
The customs and excise (amendment) bill [32]	2018	One of the objectives of the bill is to introduce excise duty on non-alcoholic beverages

Table 3. Key data sources for NR-NCDs in Zambia

Data source	Food				Diet/Consumption			Anthropometric		Disease specific	Health services		Demographic
	Household Expenditure	Household Source	Price	Trade volumes	Fruit & vegetable	Food	SSB	BMI	Stunting and wasting	NCD prevalence	Treatment indicators	Morbidity & mortality	Age	Sex	Residence	Education
DHS								X	X				X	X	X	X
STEPS survey					X			X		X	X		X	X	X	X
MOH Annual bulletin										X	X	X
LCMS	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X			X	X	X	X
MICS								X	X				X	X	X	X
WHS					X					X			X	X	X	X
NCD Country profile										X	X	X
UN Comtrade				X			X
CSO monthly bulletin			X

DHS – Demographic Health survey; LCMS – Living Condition Monitoring Survey; WHS – World Health Survey; CSO – Central Statistical Office; UN Comtrade – United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database

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