Urgent efforts to tackle undernutrition needed, warns UNICEF

As the number of hungry and malnourished people passes 1 billion, a new UNICEF report identifies undernutrition as one of the major causes of death among young children, who represent the future of the world.

The 119-page report, titled “Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition” and released here on Wednesday by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), says that undernutrition in mothers and children is a factor in a third of all deaths of children under five.

At the same time, the global financial crisis and rising food prices have left many more families struggling to put nutritious food on the table.

“The report we have launched draws attention to the fact that 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world suffer from chronic undernutrition. That’s a very high number,” said UNICEF Associate Director of Nutrition Werner Schultink.

As the report shows, the problem is concentrated in just a few regions, and 80 percent of all chronically undernourished children are found in just 24 countries. Among children who suffer from stunting — a consequence of chronic nutritional deprivation that begins before birth if the mother is undernourished — 90 percent live in Africa and Asia.

Approximately 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world suffer from stunted growth as a result of chronic maternal and childhood undernutrition, said the report.

Undernutrition contributes to more than a third of all deaths in children under five. Undernutrition is often invisible until it is severe, and children who appear healthy may be at grave risk of serious and even permanent damage to their health and development.

“Undernutrition steals a child’s strength and makes illnesses that the body might otherwise fight off far more dangerous,” said Ann M. Veneman, the UNICEF executive director. “More than one- third of children who die from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have survived had they not been undernourished.”

The 1,000 days from conception until a child’s second birthday are the most critical for a child’s development. Nutritional deficiencies during this critical period can reduce the ability to fight and survive disease, and can impair their social and mental capacities.

“Those who survive undernutrition often suffer poorer physical health throughout their lives, and damaged cognitive abilities that limit their capacity to learn and to earn a decent income,” said Veneman. “They become trapped in an intergenerational cycle of ill-health and poverty.”

The UNICEF report provides the most recent health and nutrition data, improved program strategies and progress achieved to reduce the global burden of child and maternal undernutrition. It also provides information that demonstrates how improving child nutrition is entirely feasible.

Xinhua