The World Bank has estimated that it will cost $12.5 billion to tackle the problem of children malnutrition worldwide.
– The report (download here) documents that the fight against malnutrition is still catastrophically under-funded," said Stéphane Doyon, who is a co-author of the report and to the general manager of MSF‘s nutrition work.
– We encourage the governments to attend the UN summit in Rome next week to increase their contributions to combating malnutrition. If we remain at such a low level that we have now we and the children will certainly lose the battle against malnutrition.
Norway will be represented by Agriculture and Food minister Lars Peder Brekk at the Summit held in Rome from 16-18 November.
Life-term consequences
Malnutrition is a major health problem in poor countries, but affects children under five particularly hard.
– Malnutrition impairs children’s development, and children risk growing up with a life-long mental and physical injuries," said program manager Dag Horntvedt in MSF.
Malnourished children at the same time jhave a weakened immune system, which in turn increases the risk of dying from diseases such as malaria and pneumonia.
Need personalized help
Lack of personalized help lead to your kids often ending up with useless nutrition offers.
– Much of the food aid is now adapted to adults’ nutritional needs. This assistance does not have the nutrients severely malnourished children really need. If we become better at adapting assistance to children, we take a big step in the right direction. But it costs," says Horntvedt.
Several international organizations have shown that it possible to treat very undernourished kid on a large scale. Over the last two years, MSF has treated more than 300 000 malnourished children in 22 countries.
