Basic nutrition efforts risk being ‘sidelined’ in war-torn countries
Major progress in tackling child malnutrition in some of the world’s toughest countries could be thrown into jeopardy because military and security funding is taking precedence over basic child nutrition, the IF Coalition warns today.
The number of children under five who die every year has nearly halved since 1990. Yet, as world leaders prepare to gather in London for the Hunger Summit on Saturday, our report Fragile but not Helpless highlights that countries marred by conflict or fragility have some of the highest rates of acute and chronic malnutrition, estimated to be 50 percent greater than in more stable places.
IF spokesperson David Thomson said: “Striving for peace is vital – but that shouldn’t mean pooling all our resources into security and side-lining basic needs like nutrition.
“Getting the right nutrients in a child’s first 1,000 days has lifelong implications, influencing how well they’ll do at school and their job prospects. Getting it right isn’t rocket science and we’ve shown it can be done. But it needs consistent funding and political will.
“Figures show clearly that malnutrition kills many more children than conflict. We ignore this at children’s peril – and we urge governments and donors to channel their funds and efforts accordingly.”
Though in many cases child malnutrition is well above acceptable thresholds, around half of fragile and conflict-affected states have not joined up to the global movement to tackle nutrition, known as Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN).
The report, from aid agency World Vision UK produced on behalf of the IF coalition, highlights that malnutrition is a major contributing factor in the deaths of over 2.3 million children every year. Globally, 165 million children, or one in four of all children under five, are classified as stunted; chronically undernourished and at risk of long-lasting damage to their cognitive and physical development.
Plans to promote stability and development need to include support to address this vital issue.
Donor countries are urged to:
* Explicitly encourage and support fragile and conflict-affected states to join the Scaling Up Nutrition movement.
* Incentivise change by committing to provide funding and technical support to fragile and conflict-affected states that develop costed national action plans to tackle undernutrition.
* Increase long-term development funding to the most difficult contexts, and incentivise state-building and improved ministry coordination.
* Prioritise free access to quality essential healthcare, give support to small-holder farmers, and help to improve governance in fragile and conflict-affected states.
Violent conflict almost always results in increased levels of malnutrition, especially for the most vulnerable children. People displaced from their homes, crops destroyed, farmland and tools abandoned and children often separated from their families, making it harder for them to access enough food. Preventing violence is therefore at the heart of many aid agencies’ efforts to prevent child malnutrition in fragile states. However, this does not mean that malnutrition cannot be addressed in places suffering from violence.
Fragile but not Helpless is released in advance of the government’s Nutrition for Growth event on Saturday 8th June, where the issue of hunger around the world is being discussed. Following this summit, The Big IF, a huge event in London’s Hyde Park, will see thousands of people join together to demand David Cameron and G8 leaders tackle the causes of global hunger.