Brussels, 13/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a communication adopted on 13 March by written procedure, the European Commission says that improving maternal and child nutrition in developing countries is an objective that it will be pursuing. This document provides a political framework for this new priority, to be implemented in the EU's external relations. It will provide a fresh boost to the fight against hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the world, and also help to reduce obstacles to growth and development caused by malnutrition.
Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs stated: “Undernutrition is the biggest threat to people's health in the developing world, causing at least one third of all child deaths, and a fifth of mothers'... The EU is firmly committed to reduce by 7 million the number of stunted children by 2025”. He also called on other major donors and development players to join them in this global movement.
Reducing the number of children under five years of age who are stunted by at least 10% by 2025, delivering more funds from humanitarian aid and development to food and nutritional assistance, ensuring better targeting of this aid so that it is more efficient by tackling the consequences as well as the underlying causes of under nutrition, form the main foundations to this new policy. The strategies will be presented at the second SUN (The Scaling Up Nutrition) meeting, a global platform set up in 2010 to meet the challenge of under nutrition and malnutrition in Brussels on 14-15 March, under the joint auspices of the European Commission and UNICEF. (AN/transl.fl)