One in four children globally are living in severe child food poverty mainly attributed to conflict, inequity and climate change, UNICEF report has revealed.
According to the report, 181 million children world wide under the age of 5 years experience severe child food poverty, making them more likely to experience wasting- a life threatening form of malnutrition.
“Children living in severe food poverty are living on the brink and this can have irreversible negative impact on their survival, growth and brain development,” said UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell.
The report also indicate that millions of children under the age of 5 years are unable to consume a diverse and nutritious diet and are considered to be in severe child food poverty with 4 out of 5 children consuming at most 2 of the 8 defined food groups.
“Most of the children are mainly fed on milk and a starchy staple such as maize, rice and wheat only with less than 10 percent of them being fed fruits and vegetables while a bare 5 percent manage to feed on nutrient-dense foods such as eggs, fish, poultry or meat.”
This, UNICEF says, is not enough to sustain optimal growth and development in early childhood.
“Even though income poverty among poor households has been pointed out to be the major driver in cases of severe child food poverty,” UNICEF report read in part “conflict-stricken areas such as the Gaza strip-with months of hostilities and restrictions to humanitarian-have collapsed food and health systems with an estimate of 9 out of 10 children living in severe child food poverty.”
However, children from relatively wealthier household also face severe malnutrition and child food poverty mainly attributed to poor feeding environment and feeding practices in early childhood.
Furthermore, the report also attributes child food poverty crisis to other several factors including conflicts and natural calamities such as floods, drought experienced Somalia and with-it rendering 63 percent of children malnourished and living in severe child food poverty.
“Food systems that fail to provide children with nutritious, safe and accessible options, family inability to afford nutritious foods and parents inability to adapt sustainable child feeding practices have been identified also to contribute to severe child food poverty.”
In addition, the report pointed out that food manufacturing mechanisms as a key contributor to malnutrition with cheap, nutrient-poor and unhealthy ultra-processed foods being aggressively marketed to parents and appear to be the new normal for families to feed children.
“These unhealthy foods,” UNICEF says, “are consumed by an alarming number of children experiencing food poverty, displacing more nutritious foods from daily diets.”
UNICEF has however called for collaborative efforts between governments, development and humanitarian organizations as well as donors and civil societies to put in place and implement policies in the food and beverage industry in a bid to end Child food poverty.
Additionally, the report emphasized that urgent measures needed be undertaken to end child food poverty through transformation of health systems to ensure nutritious and healthy foods are most accessible and affordable.
It also calls for strengthening of health systems in order to deliver essential nutrition services while preventing and treating malnutrition in early childhood as well as activation of social protection systems to address income poverty through social transfers.
“In order to accelerate actions to prevent and treat severe child food poverty and malnutrition, UNICEF has called upon all involved stakeholders to support Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) while prioritizing sustainable policies and practices.”
CNF-a UNICEF led multi-partner financing mechanism that incentivizes domestic investments to end child malnutrition- was Launched by UNICEF in 2023.
