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Striving for peace in war-torn and violent countries is vital. No-one can argue with that. But pooling all available resources into security and side-lining life-threatening issues like malnutrition is a dangerous path to follow
Striving for peace in war-torn and violent countries is vital. No-one can argue with that.
But pooling all available resources into security and side-lining life-threatening issues like malnutrition is a dangerous path to follow.
Malnutrition is back on the world stage as leaders prepare to gather in London for the Hunger Summit – otherwise known as “Nutrition for Growth” – this Saturday (8th June).
Our new report Fragile but not Helpless highlights that countries marred by conflict or fragility have some of the highest rates of acute and chronic malnutrition, estimated to be 50 percent greater than in more stable places.
Yet it’s in these conflict-affected states – the world’s toughest countries – that progress has been the slowest. In fact, it’s at risk of going into reverse.
For children living in these countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan, South Sudan or Afghanistan, it’s a real and imminent threat.
Particularly when we consider that more children die from malnutrition than from violence.
Malnutrition claims the lives of 2.3million children each year. Impressive progress has been made in tackling this over the past few years. The number of children under five who die every single year has nearly halved since 1990.
But donors simply need to re-prioritise if we’re to ensure the benefits of this progress reach a generation of children in the world’s most fragile states.
Inevitably, where there’s violence and conflict, there is a host of other problems. Some of these are a result of conflict; others may have contributed to the conflict in the first place. And sometimes, in the world’s most broken countries, it’s just extremely complicated.
This all applies to malnutrition. And we need to work together to ensure that everyone benefits from funding and expertise.
World Vision is calling on donor countries to explicitly encourage and support fragile and conflict-affected states to join the Scaling Up Nutrition movement.
We urge G8 leaders to commit to provide funding and technical support to fragile and conflict-affected states that develop budgeted national action plans to tackle under nutrition.
We would also like to see an increase in long-term development funding to the most difficult contexts, and incentivise state-building and improved ministry coordination.
Our focus on nutrition is the reason that World Vision is part of a coalition of UK aid agencies making up the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign.
The key message of the iF campaign is that there is enough food available in the world to feed everyone and yet one in eight women, children and men go to bed hungry. This is an international scandal that can and must be tackled.
My World Vision colleague, nutrition expert Rose Ndolo from Kenya, is due to address the Hunger Summit on Saturday. We hope her message will be heard loud and clear.
In some war-torn countries, it’s estimated that up to 60 per cent of the national budget is spent on military – with just a few per cent on tackling malnutrition. No-one can argue this strikes the right balance.
Tackling malnutrition in fragile states is possible – and, with consistent funding and political will, there is hope.
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