Save the Children calls for inquiry into government "blind spot" on child hunger and malnutrition

Save the Children is calling on the House of Commons select committee to conduct an urgent inquiry into the Department for International Development's approach to global child malnutrition issues.

Wednesday 16 January 2008

The inquiry is being demanded on the day a major new report on child nutrition is published by The Lancet describing the collective international response to child malnutrition as 'fragmented and dysfunctional'. 

Save the Children's own research[1] showed that DFID and the European Community both gave insufficient priority to nutrition in their work and that neither had a coherent nutrition strategy.

David Mepham, Save the Children's Director of Policy, said: "While DFID is a global leader on health and education and many other aspects of development, child hunger and nutrition appear to be a 'blind spot'.  Today's Lancet research calls the international community's response to nutrition 'dysfunctional' suggesting that there is a wider donor problem when it comes to nutrition issues. Failure to make progress on child hunger and undernutrition puts in jeopardy the UK's efforts in education and in health. Children who are malnourished suffer cognitive impairment, affecting their capacity to learn, and they have much weaker immune systems, making them more vulnerable to disease and early death. The existing response from the UK, EU and other donors does not match the scale of the problem".

In 2000 world leaders promised to halve the number of chronically hungry people by 2015. Since that pledge was made rates have only decreased by 2% and the number of malnourished children is actually set to rise in 32 countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, 3.7 million more children will be suffering from malnutrition in 2015 than today. The countries with the biggest potential increases are Yemen, Ethiopia and Sudan.

The new report out today by the Lancet shows that malnutrition is the cause of a third of child deaths under the age of five. It calls for reform of the UN and recommends the UN's Standing Committee on Nutrition becomes better empowered to call UN agencies such as the World Food Programme to account. It also recommends reducing duplication between UN organisations. 

Save the Children is calling on DFID and other donors to:

  • Increase investment in tackling malnutrition and specifically target children under two. Only by tackling malnutrition in the first two years of life can its devastating effects be reversed.
  • Put pressure on the EC specifically to further invest in nutrition.
  • Drive reform at the UN, particularly on food aid.
  • Take this action now to get the first millennium development goal back on track.

DFID rightly provides much of its support to developing countries through budget support. However it needs to also identify opportunities to fund countries' plans to scale up direct nutrition interventions, like breastfeeding support and promotion, vitamin A and zinc supplementation. And it needs someone to act as a 'nutrition champion' within DFID, and to better monitor its own impact on nutrition outcomes.

In 2000 world leaders agreed to use the number of people suffering from hunger as a measure of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals - but the EC and DFID are not reporting on this measure. This means the Secretary of State, Douglas Alexander, is not accountable to Parliament on indicators related to hunger. Both DFID and the EC are assuming that money spent in other areas will have a secondary impact on hunger but Save the Children is arguing that this is insufficient and that more resource and political energy needs to be devoted to tackling child malnutrition.

-Ends-

For more information or a copy of the full report please contact:
Save the Children press office on +44 (0)207 012 6841 or  media@savethechildren.org.uk

Notes to Editors
Members of Save the Children staff have been consulted by the writing team behind today's Lancet papers, and some staff members have drafted sections of certain papers. Nutrition adviser Frances Mason, Head of team Anna Taylor, Former nutrition adviser Arabella Duffield are all credited as contributors (though not contributing authors) to the series. In addition, Save the Children UK is itself acknowledged as a contributor.