Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Less than a penny a day: UK and EC failing to tackle child malnutrition despite millennium promises
[LONDON, 16 April 2007] - A report released by Save the Children UK reveals that the Department for International Development and the EC are neglecting millions of chronically malnourished children. Malnutrition is responsible for more child deaths than anything else, yet the UK government spends less than 1p per day on each hungry child in the world. The EC fares only slightly better spending 2.5 euro cents (1.7p) per child per day. In 2000 world leaders promised to halve the number of chronically malnourished, or stunted, children by 2015. Since that pledge was made rates have only decreased by 2% and the number of malnourished children is actually set to rise in 32 countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, 3.7 million more children will be suffering from malnutrition in 2015 than today. The countries with the biggest potential increases are Yemen, Ethiopia and Sudan. Save the Children’s latest report shows that tackling chronic child malnutrition is not a big enough priority for the UK government or the EC and that their response does not match the scale of the problem. The report finds that: Anna Taylor, Save the Children’s Head of Hunger Reduction, said: “Chronic malnutrition stops children growing properly and leaves them stunted. It results from getting a poor diet, day in day out and from constantly getting infections. The response by DFID and the EC does not match the scale of the problem. As ministers return to office today, Save the Children is demanding that the UK Government stop turning a blind eye to these hungry children and act now to combat malnutrition.” Save the Children is calling on DFID and the EC to immediately invest in tackling malnutrition and to specifically target children under two. Only by tackling malnutrition in the first two years of life can its devastating effects be reversed. The charity is urging them to take action now to get the first millennium development goal back on track. Further information
pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/Everybody'sBizBriefingFinal.pdf