Dietary changes in African urban households in response to currency devaluation: foreseeable risks for health and nutrition.

Objective: To investigate the effects of currency devaluation on dietary change and nutritional vulnerability of poor households in two African capital cities.

Design: A qualitative study based on 120 semistructured individual interviews and four focus group discussions in each city.

Setting: Dakar, Senegal (western Africa) and Brazzaville, Congo (central Africa).

Early nutritional history and motor performance of Senegalese children, 4-6 years of age.

The effects of undernutrition on motor coordination and performance of 139 4.0-6.5 year-old Senegalese children were studied.

Anthropometric and motor characteristics of Senegalese children with different nutritional histories.

The effects of Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) on the motor performance of 4.5-6.5-year-old Senegalese children were studied.

[Complementary nutrition for the young child following the devaluation of the CFA franc (African Financial Community): 2 case studies in the Congo and Senegal urban environment].

Developing countries frequently see their currency depreciated to varying degrees. The consequences of such monetary disturbances on the nutrition of young children are not well known, though children are the most vulnerable in nutritional terms. One year after the 50% devaluation of the CFA Franc (communauté financière africaine, "African Financial Community"), which took place on 12 January 1994 simultaneously in fourteen countries, nine of which are on the UNDP list of least developed countries, we wanted to find out the long-term effects of the devaluation, and the strategies that families had adopted to cope with it.