Madam, - As the UN Food Crisis Summit continues in Rome this week, Barry Malone's report of June 3rd from Ethiopia points to the devastating impact of the current global food crisis on the most vulnerable young children.
Spiralling food prices are aggravating the chronic crisis of infant death through malnutrition. In the Oromiya region of Ethiopia, a country in which the UN estimates that 126,000 children are currently malnourished, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical teams are seeing alarming levels of malnutrition among children under five, many with further complications of pneumonia or anaemia.
Over the past three weeks in Oromiya, MSF teams have set up emergency feeding centres and in-patient clinics for the most severely malnourished children and are also providing outreach services to ensure medical aid reaches people in remote areas.
The children in these Ethiopian projects are not alone in their suffering. The shocking reality is that malnutrition already contributes to between 3.5 and 5 million deaths in children under five across the globe each year.
It is imperative that world leaders open their eyes to the needs of young children who are most at risk in this food crisis. Soaring food prices will serve to exacerbate malnutrition and its dreadful toll. In addition, current food aid simply does not include essential foods necessary for young children, who have small stomachs and specific needs. Of the 178 million malnourished children in the world, the World Health Organisation estimates that 20 million suffer from the most severe form of malnutrition. Just 3 per cent of these 20 million actually receive the UN-recommended treatment that they need.
Food aid and nutrition programmes are driven more by cost considerations than by the nutritional needs of young children. Milk powder was removed from relief food for children in the late 1980s when global milk surpluses diminished. Since then, children have been receiving fortified blended flours that contain no animal-source food - a diet which paediatricians do not recommend for children under two.
It is imperative that an energy-dense and nutrient-rich diet is made available to children at risk. MSF is calling for immediate and urgent reform to food aid and nutrition programmes. In addressing the global food crisis, world leaders must adopt and rapidly implement nutritional strategies that specifically target children under two, to avoid further devastating loss of young life. - Yours, etc,
ROSS DUFFY,
Head of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders in Ireland,
Upper Baggot Street,
Dublin 2.