wfn.org | NGO tells Food Summit, 'Spend already promised funds on child malnutrition'

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NGO tells Food Summit, 'Spend already promised funds on child malnutrition'

Sustainable agriculture alone isn't enough--micronutrients can save
millions of children now, says Church World Service

NEW YORK - November 17, 2009 - With no specific financial commitments
made at this week's international food summit in Rome, humanitarian
agency Church World Service is urging world leaders to "trickle up"
their previously made funding promises and put more of that money now on
cost effective and relatively fast micronutrient programs to save
tomorrow's leaders-- the world's 200 million young children who are
suffering and dying from malnutrition.

"It's deeply discouraging that leading nations haven't agreed to
measurable commitments to world food security," says Maurice Bloem of
international humanitarian agency Church World Service. "But the fact is
that world bodies can multi-task with the funding they've already
promised-- by dealing now with the immediate global crisis of childhood
malnutrition at the same time they're addressing longer term solutions
like sustainable agriculture."

The alternative, says Bloem, CWS Deputy Director, Head of Programs, "is
to lose the longer term altogether, literally, in the bodies of a lost
generation of future citizens and leaders-those children who now may
fail to develop healthily, both physically and mentally, or, worse, who
may die from malnutrition and disease."

At the Rome Summit United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said
that of the 1 billion people on the planet who do not have enough to
eat, more than 17,000 children die of starvation every day-one every
five seconds."

According to a report issued last week by the United Nations Children's
Fund, 8.8 million children under age five die each year from largely
preventable causes and one-third of those who die are malnourished.

"We need to put food security and nutrition security hand in hand,"
CWS's Bloem says.

Bloem, whose agency supports sustainable agriculture programs in poor
countries, says "It's good that food summit participants are committing
to greater development of local sustainable agriculture, because so far
there has been a conspicuous lack on the action side of such promises,"
he said.

"But world leaders need also to look at the cost benefits and rapid
return on investment in treating child and maternal malnutrition," said
Bloem.

"It's a lot faster to provide and see results from increased maternal
education that encourages breastfeeding babies for at least their first
six months. It's also quicker to provide the relative bargain of
micronutrients for children under five who are at risk due to
nutritional deficiencies."

Last week Bloem attended the Copenhagen Consensus conference on
nutrition in New York, where Professor Sue Horton of the University of
Waterloo in Canada told government officials, nutrition experts,
researchers, donor groups, non-governmental agencies and the private
sector, "For a small investment we could make malnutrition yesterday's
problem."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vitamin A, iron and
iodine are the most important micronutrients in global public health
terms, particularly for children and pregnant women in poor countries.
WHO estimates that providing vitamin A every four to six months for
children aged six months to five years could reduce mortality by 23
percent in at risk regions.

Helen Keller International has estimated that the cost to deliver
sufficient vitamin A supplements is about $1 per year per child. Small
packets of multivitamin and mineral powders for moderately malnourished
small children cost about [U.S.] three cents each and are added to foods
the children already eat.

CWS's Bloem says, â??Although we realize that financial analyses are
only part of the discussion on food security and malnutrit
ion, they are
an important part of the discussion. Given present economic realities
worldwide, the question is, 'How can we continue to have the biggest
impact on maternal and child health with the resources we have?' "

In Rome, leaders attending this week's food summit -- minus the Group
of Eight except for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose
country is hosting the event-are excoriating the world's wealthiest
nations for deepening world hunger by permitting speculation in
agricultural markets and continuing the use of subsidies that hurt
production in developing countries.

In the food summit's final declaration, approved in Monday's opening
session, countries have agreed to significantly increase their pledges
for aid to agriculture -- but without a specific dollar commitment.

"Pledges are fine, if they are made real," says Bloem, "And, yes, small
holder farmers should be supported, but please don't forget that 75
percent of the world's poorest don't grow their own food. They have to
buy it."

He says action to address food distribution issues and local
agriculture supports cannot wait for a better economy, particularly in
the event of another food crisis, as a growing group of economists are
warning.

Bloem stresses that food security that safeguards nutritional health
also must include education on the need for food diversity. "Whether
foods are grown for family consumption or purchased, it's about quantity
and quality of food, and this is especially crucial for children and
pregnant and lactating women," he said.

"We owe it to future generations to make the proper investments now."

In countries including Indonesia, Cambodia, Nicaragua, the Dominican
Republic and Haiti, CWS development and social education programs have
been increasing their focus on interventions to combat malnutrition
among small children.  The agency also has heightened its advocacy for
greater world attention and funding for vulnerable children.

Media Contact

Lesley Crosson, 212.870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781.925-1526, jdragin@gis.net