UK and EC are failing to tackle child malnutrition
Tackling chronic child malnutrition is not a big enough priority for the UK government or the EC, a new report by Save the Children claims.
Monday 16 April 2007
Millions of chronically malnourished children are being neglected by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the European Commission (EC), a new report from Save the Children reveals.
In 2000, world leaders promised to halve the number of chronically malnourished children by 2015. However, since making that pledge, rates have decreased by only 2% and the number of malnourished children is predicted to rise in 32 countries, including Yemen, Ethiopia and Sudan.
If current trends continue, 3.7 million more children in Africa will suffer from malnutrition in 2015 than today.
Everybody's Business, Nobody's Responsibility (PDF 700KB), shows that tackling chronic child malnutrition is not a big enough priority for the UK government or the EC. The report finds that:
- DFID contributes less than 1p per malnourished child per day (£513.6 million)
- the EC contributes 1.7p per child per day (£946.8 million)
- not one of DFID's 1.400 HQ staff is a dedicated nutrition specialist
- despite agreeing to use the number of people suffering from hunger as a measure of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, the EC and DFID are not reporting on this measure. This means the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, is not accountable to Parliament on any 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 challenging that assumption.
"Chronic malnutrition stops children growing properly and leaves them stunted. It results from getting a poor diet, day in day out, and from constantly getting infections. The response by DFID and the EC does not match the scale of the problem."
Anna Taylor, Save the Children's Head of Hunger Reduction
What Save the Children is doing
Save the Children is calling on DFID and the EC to immediately invest in tackling malnutrition and to specifically target children under two. Only by tackling malnutrition in the first two ears of life ca its devastating effects be reversed. Action is needed now to get the first Millennium Development Goal back on track.
What you can do
- Download Everybody's Business, Nobody's Responsibility' (PDF 700KB) a briefing that looks at how the UK government and the EC are failing to tackle malnutrition
- Read more about Save the Children's hunger reduction work
