By Sola Charles
Africa and Asia will account for 95% of all undernourished babies in 2023, even as 17.6 million children will be born into hunger, a 22% increase from a decade ago, predicts a new Save the Children International study.
The
organization urges world leaders to address the core causes of the severe food
and nutrition crisis by ending global conflict, addressing climate change and
inequality, and building more resilient health, nutrition, and social
protection systems.
It calls for
increased collaboration, investment across sectors, and leadership from local
communities to strengthen response planning and execution while urging world
leaders to expand low-cost programs to prevent and treat malnutrition,
including community-based treatment for acute malnutrition, breastfeeding
support, and investment in community and primary-level healthcare.
Save the
Children International also calls for increased collaboration, engagement, and
investment across sectors to prevent predictable shocks from becoming crises.
Projections indicate that in 2023, an estimated 6.6 million children under the
age of five will be undernourished in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Sifa, 33,
living in a displacement camp in North Kivu, DRC, is struggling to feed her
five children, including her youngest born just three months ago.
“I live in
constant fear that I will lose another child. I keep thinking: “Will I ever see
my children grow and will ever have enough food for them? I’m scared of waking
up every day to find my baby gone,” Sifa said.
After losing
three previous children to malaria, cholera, and armed groups, she fears she
will lose another, this time to hunger.
“Since
giving birth three months ago, I have been struggling to feed my infant. I know
I should eat more but what little we have I give to my nine-year-old daughter.
“She already
begs for food every day and sleeps hungry, so I try to give her something. I
know its dangerous sending her out there, but we have no other option, she
needs to eat.”
Afghanistan
is bracing for the highest number of children born into hunger in Asia among
countries with vast levels of undernutrition.
Marium, 10
months, is among the roughly 440,000 children estimated to be born into hunger
in Afghanistan this year. At six months, Marium started getting diarrhoea and
then was later diagnosed with pneumonia due to a weakened immune system.
Her mother,
Zolaikha, 23, explained that the family cannot afford nutritious food to help
keep her children healthy because of their limited income. Marium said: “Since
the time we gave her water and homemade food, she started to get diarrhoea.
She became
severely weak two months ago. She was extremely weak. “ She was crying all the
time and was always in pain or discomfort and had a high fever. I used to cry
with her. It was difficult to see my daughter in pain. I hope no one’s child
ever gets sick.
“My other child, Zohra, was also severely
malnourished. She had frequent diarrhoea too and later caught pneumonia as
well. It is all because of drinking unsafe water and not having enough
nutritious food.”
The Regional
Director for Advocacy, Campaigns, Communications and Media for Save the
Children in West and Central Africa, Vishna Shah-Little, said: “More than 17
million newborns will this year enter a world where hunger will eat away at
their childhood. Hunger will destroy their dreams, silence their play, disrupt
their education, and threaten their lives.
“The future
of these children is already compromised before they even take their first
breath. We must protect their childhoods and futures before it’s too late.
“Hunger is
not a lost cause. We have the power to significantly reduce the number of malnourished
children right now, as we have in the past. However, if we do not tackle the
root causes of hunger and malnutrition, we will continue to see the reversal of
progress made for children. This is a global hunger crisis, and it requires a
global solution,” Vishna Shah-Little noted.
In the past, significant progress has been
achieved toward reducing world hunger. According to the study, 21.5 million
infants were born hungry in 2001, which is one-fifth higher than in 2023.
However, growth began to slow dramatically in 2019, owing mostly to economic
insecurity, conflicts, and a rising climate disaster.
The most
recent country data on undernourishment were released prior to the
intensification of conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory, where 2.3 million
people in Gaza have struggled to eat owing to the continuous bombing.
Using the
UN's birth rate in Gaza, Save the Children estimated that more than 66,000 kids
will be born in Gaza this year, with more than 15,000 born between October 7
and the end of 2023. Without a ceasefire, babies' lives will hang in the
balance from the moment they are born.
