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Bangladeshi mothers receive information about maternal and child health and
nutrition. Bangladesh is among the countries focusing on better nutrition.
A web-only photo courtesy of Bread for the World/Todd Post.
A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
1:00 P.M. ET February 29, 2012
Four years ago, a British medical journal presented concrete proof
that nations that don’t invest in proper nutrition for pregnant and
lactating women and their infants will suffer economically as a result.
That research has prompted governments, relief agencies and advocacy
groups to create a new anti-poverty focus, and faith groups, including
United Methodists, are joining the effort.
The “1000 Days”
partnership — referring to the time between a woman’s pregnancy and
her child’s 2nd birthday — was launched “to help raise awareness of
this new knowledge,” explained Asma Lateef of Bread for the World, the
hunger advocacy organization that has helped lead the faith-based
response.
Bread for the World is emphasizing a connection with denominational women’s organizations
on this issue, Lateef said, because women have “understood, through
their own experience, the importance of early childhood nutrition.”
Participation in 1000 Days is a natural fit for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, said June Kim, executive secretary for world hunger/poverty and sustainable agriculture and development.
“UMCOR has always worked to provide nutrition,” she explained. “For us, food is the first medicine.”
Many nongovernmental organizations and governments are “on the same
page” when it comes to assessing this data, added Maurice Bloem, deputy
director of Church World Service. “Everybody is talking now about the
thousand days, the importance of working with these kids and mothers.”
Church World Service
already has shifted its organizational focus to hunger and
malnutrition, Bloem said, as the result of a visioning process
initiated by its top executive, the Rev. John McCullough, a United
Methodist pastor. The organization is recognized for its CROP Hunger Walk, which raises money for local and global hunger and poverty initiatives.
‘Lifelong consequences’
June Kim of the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(center, in peach jacket) and others visited three African
countries last October as part of a trip sponsored by
Bread for the World related to the “1000 Days” initiative.
Photo courtesy of Bread for the World.
View in Photo Gallery
In January 2008, “The Lancet”
medical journal published research showing that a child experiencing
even a short period of malnutrition during the period before birth
through the age of 2 “would suffer lifelong consequences,” said Lateef.
“If you’re in a country where there is widespread malnutrition among
that age group, the consequences are much broader.”
At the time, a global crisis over food prices
was causing political unrest in some countries, so world leaders took
notice. In addition, the Lancet offered proven, cost-effective
interventions “that could be scaled up immediately,” she pointed out.
This month, Church World Service, in collaboration with the Kenyan
Ministry of Health, started distributing packets of vitamin and
mineral-rich powder supplements to maternal and child health clinics in Mwingi and Kwale districts of Kenya.
The two districts had been treating hundreds of malnourished
children on a monthly basis but previously had no access to these
supplements, according to Sammy Mutua, emergency coordinator for CWS
Africa.
“You need to strengthen people’s abilities to grow nutritious foods as well,” Bloem said. “There is not one solution.”
The launch of the 1000 Days partnership in 2010 coincided with a
plan for “Scaling Up Nutrition,” endorsed by more than 100 government,
civil society, academic and business organizations. What is referred to
as the SUN Framework outlines core priorities and actions and provides a structure for national plans.
Last October, Kim joined a group of religious leaders, organized by
Bread for the World, who visited Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania in Africa
to get a sense of how national strategies on nutrition are being
implemented.
The effectiveness of such government efforts can depend on who takes
responsibility, she said. In Malawi, for example, the early nutrition
strategy is lodged in the vice president’s office “so it had a lot more
visibility and a lot more clout.”
The U.S. response is “Feed the Future,” which has two objectives:
improving the livelihoods of farmers and improving the nutritional
status of mothers and children.
In the past, the health sector has considered nutrition to be a
“food” issue for the agriculture sector, while the agriculture sector
thought of nutrition as a health intervention. The result: “There was no
ownership of nutrition either within the donor countries or in
governments in developing countries,” Lateef said.
But, she pointed out, the research has helped developing countries
understand that “they’re never going to be on a sustainable path
because their future is already being compromised by the devastating
impact on these children not being able to grow and develop like other
children.”
Marking progress
A progress report from 19 countries, unveiled last September at a
High Level Meeting on Nutrition at the U.N. General Assembly, found
that hundreds of millions still experience hunger and poor nutrition,
despite overall reductions in global poverty.
Zambian mother and baby. The Zambian government is working to cut
malnutrition rates. A web-only photo by Margaret W. Nea from the Bread
for the World 2011 Hunger Report.
But major achievements made over the past year include increased
political commitment for better nutrition within countries and regions
and on an international level; “bold goals and specific targets” by
governments to reduce under-nutrition; and the organization of more
than 100 “international stakeholders” into six task forces.
Expected results in participating countries include fewer
low-birth-weight babies and less stunting in children under 2, fewer
incidents of severe weight loss from birth to 24 months and less iron
deficiency in women in the third trimester of pregnancy.
“The need for such an initiative is abundantly clear,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote in the report’s preface. “The food insecurity being faced by millions of people following prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa
underscores the need to provide nutritional care and to support
national authorities as they help vulnerable families realize their
right to food, enjoy food and nutrition security, and resist the impact
of climatic and other shocks.”
Raising income levels through development programs does not
automatically translate into the consumption of more nutritious food.
UMCOR has always used a multifaceted approach to its training programs for farmers and communities.
In this case, it is essential, Kim said, to incorporate behavioral
changes into such programs to stress nutrition. “Insuring household
nutrition will, in turn, help with the country’s GDP (gross domestic
product).”
Some countries are not seeing improvements in the areas of
malnutrition and maternal mortality because proper attention is not
given to the education of girls and women, Bloem said.
“If your mothers have less education, nutrition in the household is
going down,” he explained. “With every level of education, the chance
of improving the nutrition of the child is increasing.”
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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