Many people believe that aid organizations like the War on Hunger will distribute food if chronic hunger cannot be prevented. And we sometimes do that, too, especially in emergencies. However, there is much more that cannot be captured just by the sight of an aid worker holding a bag of grain. This includes the fact that at some point malnutrition becomes more than just a food issue. It's a public health issue.
When a person becomes moderately malnourished, the body begins to use energy stores in the tissues – carbohydrates and fats, as well as proteins. Usually, the body shuts down its most metabolically intensive functions, such as digestion, first, causing diarrhea. But this makes it more difficult for the body to process the nutrients it receives.
In some cases, malnutrition can lead to death. Severely malnourished children often have no appetite and are unable to quickly cope with normal eating. This is a widespread and dangerous condition that affects 14 million children under the age of 5 worldwide. During treatment, your child will be given therapeutic milk, ready-to-use therapeutic foods, and other medical care to aid recovery. Yet even moderately malnourished children face four times greater health risks than well-nourished children.
sandra carigaro
Action against hunger in Afghanistan
A boy eats plumpeanut, a peanut paste used to treat malnutrition, at one of the anti-hunger nutrition centers in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the world's first guidelines for managing moderate malnutrition, which affects more than 31 million children. It is worth noting that this guideline comes from the WHO, rather than a traditionally “food-focused” organization. This is because acute malnutrition is a medical problem that requires treatment based on scientific evidence. In other words, hunger is a health problem.
Nutritional services are essential for the healthy growth of children. But in too many places, families lack basic health services, including nutritional programs. Despite considerable progress, only 25% of acutely malnourished children receive the treatment they need, which has many ramifications.
In Zambia, people are facing severe hunger due to the worst drought in 20 years.
Malnutrition can make people more vulnerable to the effects of diseases associated with dirty water, such as malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, and cholera, which is also on the rise in many parts of the world. Cholera spreads so rapidly that even a single case is considered an epidemic. If untreated, cholera can be fatal within hours. Cholera is most common in extremely poor areas, where people are more likely to be malnourished and more susceptible to disease.
Approximately two million children die each year from the devastating effects of malnutrition. Hunger is a public health crisis. This is also a crisis we know how to solve. Treatment of malnutrition is effective in 90% of cases. So why is the mortality rate so tragically high?
Diego Ibarra Sanchez
Action against hunger, Lebanon
In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the War on Hunger is helping educate people about cholera and how to stop its spread.
the root of the crisis
Through programs that include everything from climate-smart agriculture to training for more lucrative livelihoods, we can ensure that even if food aid is needed, it is only needed temporarily, and that after that, natural disasters that are difficult to prevent or mitigate. We are working toward a world where people only need us after a disaster occurs. Such as the earthquakes that occurred in Syria and Türkiye last year.
Today, we are far from that vision and the UN goal of zero hunger for several important reasons.
A child reacts as people retrieve belongings from the rubble of a damaged building after an attack in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
conflict causes hunger
Conflicts such as the Gaza crisis and the South Sudanese civil war have disrupted food production and distribution by burning fields and stealing crops, destroying wells, bombing markets, and blocking roads and ports. is confusing. Humanitarian workers are often targeted or prevented from reaching communities in need. More than 85% of people facing 'crisis' levels of hunger (or higher) live in countries affected by conflict. This equates to more than 260 million people in around 60 countries, making armed conflict the leading cause of hunger around the world. UN Security Council Resolution 2417 declares that starvation as a weapon may constitute a war crime. Despite this ground-breaking action, there have been no prosecutions for 'hunger crimes' and conflict-related hunger is on the rise.
Hunger is more deadly than bullets
Where there is conflict, there is always hunger. Around the world, more people are living in areas affected by conflict. Conflict has upended lives, forced people from their homes and limited access to food.
Together, we can break the cycle of hunger and conflict.
Fund shortage continues
The world has enough resources to ensure that all life is adequately nourished. But funds are always in short supply. This year's War on Hunger analysis shows that even among countries facing crisis levels of hunger, only 35% of hunger-related funding requests have been met, leaving a 65% hunger funding gap. It turned out that This is a 23% increase over the previous year. Fully funding hunger-related appeals in the 17 countries included in this year's report would require $8.86 billion, less than half of the amount Americans bet on the Super Bowl.
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health system is fragile
Hunger is difficult to address as a health problem in places where health systems are weak or dysfunctional. In the short term, it is often necessary to support systems in crisis. By working long term and partnering with local communities and government authorities, we will build local capacity by assessing the six pillars of the health system and working to strengthen strengths and close gaps in supply, funding and know-how. It can be utilized and strengthened. Action Against Hunger urges governments to allocate at least 15% of total public spending to health care and an additional 1% of GDP to primary health care to help budget and plan more effective health systems. I am proposing to do so.
Dr. Salma Mahayu treats malnourished children at a therapeutic feeding unit in Iramba district, Tanzania. Kundi, the child's mother, helps.
Comprehensively solving hunger
Existing tools can help address these interlocking challenges. We have pioneered a valid, evidence-based approach. Now we need the collective will to act.
During conflicts, United Nations Member States must prioritize the prevention of hunger, use their influence to hold parties to conflicts accountable for violations of international law, and ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid. We need more funding and flexible, long-term funding. As the appeals of countries in crisis go unmet, we must prioritize a united approach to curing hunger. Malnutrition will only increase in places where funding is not available and humanitarian aid cannot reach. In crises like Sudan and Gaza, millions of people are forcibly displaced and without access to basic emergency treatment, let alone comprehensive health services. It is essential to expand the network of local health workers and expand their reach to reach hard-to-reach places, from crowded displacement camps to villages miles away from clean water sources.
Guy Calaf
action against hunger
The crisis in Sudan has forced many people to flee to neighboring countries such as South Sudan and Chad.
Funders can also make resources available for evidence-based approaches to public health, including policy interventions. Extended tools for tracking and analysis. Expanding community involvement. and further research and innovation.
Every day, more and more people are fighting conflicts and enduring long journeys to reach humanitarian centers. Before hunger forces people out of their communities, we must address the causes of the crisis. Proper diet is a human right. That's why proactive action is essential, as well as adopting measures to make the most of budgets and provide care to as many people as possible.
In Kenya, mothers screen their children for malnutrition.
The hunger crisis is a health crisis. This World Health Month, we must mobilize all the tools at our disposal to address this problem, as if our lives depended on it. Because for millions of people, their lives are at stake.
