In the run up to the UN World Food Summit in Rome on November 16 to 18, there is growing concern that rich governments will abandon the goal to eradicate hunger by 2025, despite the low price tag of £150 per child to tackle the problem.
Monday 16 November 2009
Our recent findings show that just 25 pence a day for the first two years of a child’s life would protect them from the devastating effects of malnutrition. A total of £150 would give a hungry child the right kind of food and support to stop them dying from the effects of malnutrition, and protect their brains and bodies from being permanently damaged by hunger, according to our new research. However the amount currently spent on nutrition by rich country governments is significantly lower.
More than 178 million children are currently suffering from chronic malnutrition, which causes a third of all child deaths globally. This means that more than 25,000 children will die from malnutrition-related causes while the three-day food conference is taking place.
“Children are dying because world leaders are failing to tackle high levels of malnutrition that account for a third of child deaths every year. The combined threat of food price rises, climate change and the economic downturn is threatening to push that number even higher,” David Mepham, Save the Children’s Policy Director, said. “These deaths are not random events out of our control – they are the outcome of political choices made by governments.”
Mepham urged world leaders to avoid condemning another generation of children to suffer the consequences of malnutrition. "If leaders at the world food summit are to be taken seriously in their commitment to tackle hunger, they should be working harder towards ambitious targets that reflect the severity and global importance of the task ahead – not just dropping the goals that are difficult to meet,” he said. “There is still time to save this summit, but it needs real political will and concrete action."
Small window of opportunity to stop malnutrition
Our report, Hungry for Change, reveals that there is a small window of opportunity to stop malnutrition from causing irreversible damage to children’s brains and bodies that runs from conception to a child’s second birthday – just 33 months. In developing countries 11% of all children are malnourished before they are even born, as their growth is restricted by their mother's poor diet. In some countries only 5% of children have a sufficiently diverse diet; the rest don’t get enough different types of food and vitamins for their brains and bodies to develop properly. Over half of children in developing countries have a diet that includes three or fewer different foods.
It would cost £5.25 billion a year to combat child hunger in these countries and dramatically reduce the number of children who are stunted or malnourished, according to the research.
Children are dying because world leaders are failing to tackle malnutrition
David Mepham
Save the Children Policy Director
Save the Children wants a guarantee that £150 will be spent on every child up to the age of two. This would pay for the delivery of tried and tested solutions that reduce hunger such as helping mothers breastfeed, providing families with money to buy good food, and giving children vitamin supplements. This up-front investment would be more than paid back in future improvements to education and the economy.
“We know how to tackle child hunger and we know how much it will cost,” Mepham continued. “Nutrition is not given the importance it deserves and this must change. The outcome of this world food summit must be a cast iron commitment to ending child hunger once and for all.”