Quantcast
Channel: ReliefWeb Updates
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 14548

World: Child hunger and its long-term effects

0
0
Source: UN Children's Fund
Country: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mali, Uganda, World

BY NOEL MARIE ZAGRE AND GARY QUINCE

Eric Turyasingura chases after a ball made from plastic bags outside his home in the mountains of southern Uganda. Yelling “Arsenal with the ball! Arsenal with the ball!” in his mother tongue, Nkore, he jostles with his younger brothers for possession.

At five years old, Eric’s body already tells a story of poverty and lost opportunity. He is six inches shorter than he should be for his age. His arms and legs are very thin and his head is out of proportion to his body. Because he is stunted, experts say his chances of growing up healthy, learning at full potential, and getting a job – let alone of playing professional soccer – have been greatly diminished.

In 2013, a UN Report said, worldwide, one in four children under-5 – a total of 165 million – were stunted. Last year The Lancet estimated that undernutrition contributed to 45 per cent of all under-5 deaths.

Often beginning in the womb, stunting can be a lifelong affliction. Studies show it is linked to poor cognition and educational performance; low adult wages; and lost productivity. A stunted child is nearly five times more likely to die from diarrhea than a non-stunted child because of the physiological changes in a stunted body.

Development agencies say that significant progress has been made in ensuring children are properly nourished, and as a result, the incidence of stunting is declining. However, huge challenges remain, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of stunted under-fives is two in five.

With crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Syria and now Iraq displacing millions of people, combating hunger and ensuring stunting rates don’t creep back up has become a top priority.

The Africa Nutrition Security Partnership is an innovative programme to combat stunting both at the community level and the institution level. It is being implemented by UNICEF and funded by the European Union since 2011. Acutely malnourished children at risk of death are directed to health clinics, and at the same time health institutions and partners are given the tools they need to improve infant and young child feeding practices and hygiene, and to fight hunger and disease more effectively.

The four-year programme focuses on Ethiopia (with a stunting rate of 44%), Uganda (33%), Mali (38%) and Burkina Faso (35%).

In Uganda, for example, community workers have been provided with smartphones, programmed with information about hygiene, postnatal care and proper infant and maternal diet. The workers share the information with household members and then log their location on the smartphone’s GPS to prove they were there.

In Mali’s capital, Bamako, funding has been provided to broaden a master’s degree to provide advanced training to healthcare professionals about how best to design and implement nutrition programmes.

In Ethiopia, schoolgirls are being encouraged to delay marriage and pregnancy until they are at least 18, as a way of preventing intergenerational undernutrition. Older women are better able to carry a baby and rear children with stronger bodies and minds.

The increased focus on stunting by the humanitarian community is telling: its prevalence has become a kind of litmus test for the well-being of children in general. A child who has grown to a normal height is more likely to live in a household in which they wash their hands and have a toilet; is more likely to eat fruit and vegetables; is more likely to be going to school; is more likely to get a good job; and is less likely to die from disease.

Moreover, tipping the balance in favor of a child’s future isn’t as hard as some might think. The simple act of reinforcing the importance of exclusively breastfeeding a baby for the first six months of his or her life, for example, increases an infant’s chances of survival by six times.

Most of the regions where the partnership is being run have ample food to go around. It is other factors, such as failing to wash and dry utensils properly after meals; selling nutritious homegrown foods at the market rather than eating them; and cultural sensitivities to things like vegetables and eggs that are causing problems. As such, simple education programmes can make a real difference and save countless lives.

The other challenge is ensuring that there is enough political will to keep those programmes running. If the international community remains focused, the downward trend in stunting will continue.

Children need to be allowed to grow to their full potential and good things will follow.

Dr Noel Marie Zagre, MPH, PhD is UNICEF’s Regional Nutrition Adviser for Eastern & Southern Africa. Ambassador Gary Quince is Head of the European Union Delegation to the African Union.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 14548

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images