The nutritional status among societies in Tanzania is poor. The mostly affected groups are under-fives, and women of reproductive age. However, available data indicate malnutrition varies with place of residence whereby people living in rural areas are at increased risk. Quantitative data on poverty and chronic malnutrition in Kagera region are readily available. What is critically missing is the in-depth understanding of this public health problem from the affected communities’ perspective. We conducted a qualitative study in the Tanzania-Uganda borderlands to understand the perceived causes, impacts and strategies to combat low nutrition problem in the region. By fitting reported factors in the social-ecological model, we identified gaps and needs at each of the five levels of the model that should be addressed simultaneously. It is concluded that low nutrition in Kagera is a function of the interplay between individual, interpersonal, community, organizational and public policy factors that require multisectoral solutions.
Borderlands; Kagera; Nutrition; Social-ecological model; Tanzania; Qualitative study
