UNITED NATIONS, Jun 06 (APP):The UN Children\u2019s Fund, UNICEF, released a new report on Thursday that highlights alarming levels of child food poverty in many parts of the world due to inequity, conflict, and climate crises.
\nThe report warned that millions of children under five have difficulty accessing nutritious and diverse diets necessary for developmental growth and that food prices and living costs have hit record-high levels as countries continue to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
UNICEF Nutrition Specialist Harriet Torlesse, who was also a lead writer on the report, said, \u201cOne in four children globally are surviving on extremely poor diets, consuming just two or fewer of the major food groups.\u201d
\n\u201cSo, for a child in Afghanistan, for example, that\u2019s just some bread or perhaps milk in the whole day, and almost certainly no vegetables and fruits and no good sources of protein,\u201d she told UN News, a media website, ahead of the launch.
\n\u201cAnd this is very troubling because these children cannot survive on such poor diets.\u201d
\nThe report found that 65 percent of the 181 million children worldwide experiencing child food poverty reside in 20 countries\u2014about 64 million are in South Asia and 59 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
Even further, nearly half of all cases are linked to households where income poverty is prominent.
\nHowever, many other factors fuel this crisis, including \u201cfood systems that fail to provide children with nutritious, safe, and accessible options, families\u2019 inability to afford nutritious foods, and parents\u2019s inability to adopt and sustain positive child feeding practices.\u201d
\nMore than half of children in Somalia experience child food poverty amid conflict and natural disasters.
\nSimilarly, in Gaza, nine out of ten children are dealing with high levels of food poverty as fighting continues.
\n\u201cThis is evidence of the horrific impact the conflict and restrictions are having on families\u2019 ability to meet children\u2019s food needs and the speed at which they place children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition,\u201d the report stated.
\nHowever, it was noted that other countries dealing with their own crises, like Burkina Faso, significantly reduced their levels of child food poverty. Burkina Faso has halved the number of cases there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that with the right type of action, countries can make progress, including low-income countries,\u201d Torlesse said. \u201cThese countries have all made a deliberate effort to improve the supply of local nutritious foods, be it pulses, vegetables, or poultry.\u201d
\nUNICEF appealed for action to make nutritious foods more accessible for young children, activate social protection systems to address income poverty, and leverage health systems to deliver necessary nutrition services to assist children.
\n\u201cUNICEF is calling on all governments, development partners, and humanitarian partners to act now to prioritize actions to end child food poverty,\u201d Torlesse said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must position the elimination of child food poverty as a policy imperative, particularly to achieve the sustainable development goals of malnutrition,\u201d she added.
\nShe said, \u201cIt is also important for health systems to be strengthened so that they can advise and support families on how to feed their children.\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why children should grow up in child food poverty,\u201d Torlesse said.
\n\u201cNot when we know the consequences for children\u2019s abilities to grow and thrive, and especially not when we have the solutions and we know what works,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 06 (APP):The UN Children\u2019s Fund, UNICEF, released a new report on Thursday that highlights alarming levels of child food poverty in many parts of the world due to inequity, conflict, and climate crises. The report warned that millions of children under five […]<\/p>\n
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