WHO / CHILD MALNUTRITION

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12-Jan-2023 00:04:13
United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in the 15 countries hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis. WHO

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STORY: WHO / CHILD MALNUTRITION
TRT: 4:13
SOURCE: WHO
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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 12 JANUARY 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

SHOTLIST:

12 JANUARY 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Med shot, Branca at the interview
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Francesco Branca, Director, OOWHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety:
“The Call to Action is released by the UN organization to ask for greater attention and greater investment to address the dramatic crisis of malnutrition, which we are seeing as a result of a combination of climate shocks, conflicts, economic downturns and COVID-19, which have increased the number of malnourished children. We now have more than 30 million children who are malnourished, and some of them, at least 8 million, are severely affected. And it increases the risk of death up to 12 times compared to the children who are well-nourished.”

FILE – WHO - 2022 - KAJIADO COUNTRY HOSPITAL, KENYA

3. Various shots, a mother feeding her child and talking with a health worker

12 JANUARY 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Francesco Branca, Director, OOWHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety:
WHO is trying to increase the access to the necessary treatment for the malnourished children, and that means increasing the number, which is now only two out of ten children who receive the adequate treatment. We have been updating the science and the recommendations about how to manage severe acute malnutrition. We've been providing tools, we've been providing training to health workers and helping the countries with the highest burden, were worst affected to develop scale up plans. We've also been trying to curb the drift towards increased malnutrition by promoting and supporting adequate nutrition in the first months of life, particularly breastfeeding, but also adequate complementary feeding. And this is together all the work to make the environment where children live less prone to infections, which is another cause of malnutrition. So with better water and better sanitation and above all, better access to health care, Universal Health Coverage for primary care services to all children.”

FILE – WHO – 2022, ETHIOPIA

5. Various shots, a child being weighed and health worker taking notes at Godey General Hospital, Ethiopia

12 JANUARY 2023, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Francesco Branca, Director, OOWHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety:
“The governments of the countries that are worst affected can mainstream the management of acute malnutrition in their health services. But they can also have adequate social protection programs for the families of those vulnerable children. They can strengthen food security, they can make the access to safe water and sanitation accessible to all. And the donor countries, donor countries can scale up and focus their resources to the countries and to the services to address severe acute malnutrition.”

FILE – WHO - LORNGOUSA, KAJIADO, KENYA

7. Various shots, health workers examining children at a community gathering

STORYLINE:

United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in the 15 countries hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.

Conflict, climate shocks, the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, and rising costs of living are leaving increasing numbers of children acutely malnourished while key health, nutrition and other life-saving services are becoming less accessible. Currently, more than 30 million children in the 15 worst-affected countries suffer from wasting – or acute malnutrition – and 8 million of these children are severely wasted, the deadliest form of undernutrition. This is a major threat to children’s lives and to their long-term health and development, the impacts of which are felt by individuals, their communities and their countries.

In response, five UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - are calling for accelerated progress on the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting. It aims to prevent, detect and treat acute malnutrition among children in the worst-affected countries, which are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan and Yemen.

The Global Action Plan addresses the need for a multi-sectoral approach and highlights priority actions across maternal and child nutrition through the food, health, water and sanitation, and social protection systems. In response to increasing needs, the UN agencies identified five priority actions that will be effective in addressing acute malnutrition in countries affected by conflict and natural disasters and in humanitarian emergencies. Scaling up these actions as a coordinated package will be critical for preventing and treating acute malnutrition in children, and averting a tragic loss of life.

The UN agencies call for decisive and timely action to prevent this crisis from becoming a tragedy for the world’s most vulnerable children. All agencies urge for greater investment in support of a coordinated UN response that will meet the unprecedented needs of this growing crisis, before it is too late.

“This situation is likely to deteriorate even further in 2023,” said QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “We must ensure availability, affordability and accessibility of healthy diets for young children, girls, and pregnant and lactating women. We need urgent actionnow to save lives, and to tackle the root causes of acute malnutrition, workingtogether across all sectors.” Qu said.

“The UN system is responding as one to this crisis and the UN Global Action Plan on Child Wasting is our joint effort to prevent, detect and treat wasting globally. At UNHCR we are working hard to improve analysis and targeting to ensure that we reach children who are most at risk, including internally displaced and refugees populations.” Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

“Today’s cascading crises are leaving millions of children wasted and have made it harder for them to access key services. Wasting is painful for the child, and in severe cases, can lead to death or permanent damage to children’s growth and development. We can and must turn this nutrition crisis around through proven solutions to prevent, detect, and treat child wasting early. ”Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

“More than 30 million children are acutely malnourished across the 15 worst-affected countries, so we must act now and we must act together. It is critical that we collaborate to strengthen social safety nets and food assistance to ensure Specialized Nutritious Foods are available to women and children who need them the most.” David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)

“The global food crisis is also a health crisis, and a vicious cycle: malnutrition leads to disease, and disease leads to malnutrition,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO).”Urgent support is needed now in the hardest hit countries to protect children’s lives and health, including ensuring critical access to healthy foods and nutrition services, especially for women and children.”
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