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Op-ed

Child Nutrition-Not by Food Alone

by Kul C. Gautam

Malnutrition is largely a silent and invisible emergency, exacting a terrible toll on children, their families, and nations. During the four days that world leaders gather in Rome to review progress made in the five years following the 1996 World Food Summit and recommit to halving world hunger by 2015, some 60,000 children under five will have died, their deaths associated with malnutrition.

Malnutrition is caused by more than a lack of food alone. It is the outcome of a host of interlinked causes including common and preventable infections, inadequate care and unsafe water, weak primary health care and basic education systems. Malnutrition blunts intellects and saps the productivity and potential of entire societies. Poverty, one of the causes of malnutrition, is also a consequence, a tragic bequest by malnourished parents to the next generation.

Virtually all countries of the world have embraced the Convention on the Rights of the Child that obligates them to fulfill children's right to good nutrition. The recent United Nations Special Session on Children focused on the lack of progress in child nutrition, even though there has been some progress in countering iodine and vitamin A deficiency.

Yet far more needs to be done. Iron deficiency anaemia, the single most prevalent cause of micronutrient malnutrition in the world, still affects more than two billion people. Some 150 million children are still malnourished, more than two thirds of them in Asia. Due to conflicts, HIV/AIDS, natural and man-made disasters, the absolute number of malnourished children has increased in Africa. Every year, over 9 million babies in South Asia and over 3 million in sub-Saharan Africa are born with low birthweight.

We know a great deal about giving children the best start in life, the benefits of breastfeeding, early childhood care and development, and the value of girls' education. The challenge therefore is not a lack of knowledge, technologies, or even food-there is enough to feed every man, woman and child on earth. Rather, it is a collective and social challenge to overcome poverty, inequity, and, above all, a lack of determination and the belief that change is possible.

It is high time for an international alliance against hunger, as called for by the Declaration of the World Food Summit: five years later being held in Rome. Real progress is possible only if partnerships are developed involving governments, civil society actors, the private sector, opinion leaders, and communities. Children themselves need to be part of processes determining their own future and well-being.

The children who attended the Special Session on Children last month-more than 400 from all regions of the world-demanded that leaders and societies fulfill their obligations to create a world fit for children, which, they rightly said, is a world fit for all. UNICEF urges leaders attending the Food Summit to do their part to guarantee good nutrition, as one of the foundations for such a world.

Kul C. Gautam is Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF.