MANILA/NEW YORK– Around 181 million children worldwide under 5 years of age – or 1 in 4 – are experiencing severe child food poverty, making them up to 50 percent more likely to experience wasting, a life-threatening form of malnutrition, a new UNICEF report reveals today.
In the Philippines, efforts to reduce stunting (low height for age) and wasting (low weight for age) have led to a decrease over the years with wasting showing the steadiest decline. There has been progress a year into the Government’s 2023-2028 Plan of Action for Nutrition, which aims to increase consumer demand for healthy diets and improve access to adequate, age-appropriate, nutrient-dense, diverse, safe, and sustainable diets.
The island nation is also making their cash transfers more nutrition-sensitive by targeting the most vulnerable families to help alleviate poverty and make quality food more affordable. However, the report also reveals that the Philippines is still one of the countries that account for 65 percent of the total number of children living in severe child food poverty.
For the first time, the global report Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood analyses the impacts and causes of dietary deprivation among the world’s youngest people in nearly 100 countries and across income groups. It warns that millions of children under the age of five cannot access and consume a nutritious and diverse diet to sustain optimal growth and development in early childhood and beyond.
Children who consume, at most, two of eight defined food groups are in severe child food poverty. The eight food groups include breastmilk, grains and roots, pulses and nuts, dairy products, meat, poultry and fish, eggs, Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, and other fruits and vegetables.
According to the report, around 18 percent, or 2 million, of children in the Philippines are severely food-poor. Four out of five children in this situation are fed only breastmilk/milk and/or a starchy staple, such as rice, corn, or wheat. Less than 10 percent of these children are fed fruits and vegetables. And less than 5 percent are fed nutrient-dense foods such as eggs, fish, poultry, or meat.
“Children living in severe food poverty are children living on the brink. This can have an irreversible negative impact on their survival, growth, and brain development,” said UNICEF Representative to Philippines Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov. “Children who consume just rice and some vegetable soup a day are up to 50 percent more likely to experience severe forms of malnutrition.”
The report warns that while countries are still recovering from the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of growing inequities, conflicts, and the climate crisis have pushed food prices and the cost of living to record high levels.
Nearly half (46 percent) of all cases of severe child food poverty are among poor households where income poverty is likely to be a major driver, while 54 percent – or 97 million children – live in relatively wealthier households, among whom poor food environments and feeding practices are the main drivers of food poverty in early childhood, the report finds.
The report also revealed that consumption of unhealthy products was particularly high in the Philippines, where more than one in five children consumed an unhealthy food and/or sweet beverage – despite these children consuming two or fewer food groups per day.
To end child food poverty, UNICEF calls on governments, development and humanitarian organizations, donors, civil society, and the food and beverage industry to urgently: transform food systems so that nutritious, diverse, and healthy foods are the most accessible, affordable, and desirable option for caregivers to feed young children;leverage health systems to deliver essential nutrition services to prevent and treat malnutrition in early childhood, including support for community health and nutrition workers to counsel parents and families on child feeding and care practices; and activate social protection systems to address income poverty through social transfers (cash, food, and vouchers), in ways that are responsive to the food and nutrition needs of vulnerable children and their families. (PR)
Mortui Dicuntur
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR III
Without due process, they were eliminated. The death was painful perhaps and the fear before the death was more painful than the actual death, perhaps. But then again , they died and still dead up to this day.
Mortui dicuntur, the dead had spoken and in the dead of the night I was awaken by the nightmare that it is, they want me to write a piece about them, thousands of them. Those that had perished in the last Administration’s War on Drugs.
It was this viral video of a classroom presided by a balding Englishman Professor who at the get go send a lady out of his classroom without any warning. Then afterwards he asked the class about their definition of justice and they give a wide array of intellectual definitions. Having all these notion and description the Professor asked why the class did not raise protest when the professor sent the lady out with no reason at all? The reality came crushing in , the people do not really care about what is happening around him or her, not until he is part of the victims and the person is actually hurt by these chaos!
The figures look and felt sad. The 6,000 police estimated dead of the Duterte’s Drug war and the United Nation estimates of 27,000 dead. Modestly we can say that there had been thousands of deaths and very few accountability, very rare redemption on this very horrid reality of deaths and killings of mostly POOR suspects.
Yet after the Marcos Administration came with the new approach of winning the war on drugs the people perhaps used to the blood thirsty approach cried for more blood. However as time goes by when the smoke cleared and the drug war with a new approach focused on the apprehension of BIG drug dealers , it was not well applauded but the tons of drug haul was a very welcome development.When the House of Representatives came up with the idea of conducting a separate and prompt Probe and Hearing on Extrajudicial Killings, I was happy.
Late one evening in a deep slumber, I heard the voice of the victims, shouting in loud voices , write for us, write something for us , something about us !
These are loud yet clear mortui dicuntur. it is the dead that shouts! They need justice, the dead needs final resolution.