Brussels, 28/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - There are currently 870 million people in the world still suffering from hunger, 100 million under-five year olds who are malnourished and underweight for their age, 165 million under-five year olds who suffer from being stunted - and malnutrition kills 2.6 million children every year. This is an unacceptable situation which must be remedied at global level, EU development ministers believe, approving the approach proposed by the European Commission for the EU's external policy to serve this ambition.
The conclusions of the Council of the European Union on food and nutrition security in the EU's external assistance - conclusions which were adopted without debate in Brussels on 28 May - state this concern and underline the critical importance of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) within the planned timeframe - especially the MDG on child and maternal health. While recognising that rates of malnutrition dropped considerably between 1990 and 2012, the EU27 member states reiterate that progress is too slow and that it is necessary to work doubly hard for the MDG number one - eliminating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 - not only to be reached but also to be surpassed. The member states stress the need to ensure that hunger, and food and nutrition security are well reflected in work on the global agenda for post-2015 development.
The Council is also concerned at the increasing prevalence of over-nutrition and obesity, and the associated increased incidence of illnesses related to these phenomena - particularly in developing countries facing the double burden of malnutrition and increasing pressure on already over-burdened health systems and economies.
The Council welcomes the nutrition objectives approved by the WHO in 2012, especially the objective of a 40% reduction by 2025 in the number of under-five year olds who are stunted. It also welcomes the objective of UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon to achieve a world free of hunger in our lifetime. It welcomes the European Commission's communication on an EU framework policy to enhance maternal and child nutrition in its external aid policy, and it approves the strategic priorities both for development and humanitarian aid.
The Council particularly stresses the need to focus on the under-nutrition of mothers and children in the 1,000-day period between the beginning of pregnancy and the age of two to combat the irreversible effects of chronic under-nutrition in early childhood.
The Council encourages the EU and its member states to engage in the SUN (Scaling Up Nutrition) movement, to invest more in nutrition research, nutrition education and health, to identify mechanisms for national action to accelerate progress - including through public/private partnerships, and to increase their financial support to partner developing countries with high rates of under-nutrition - in countries that are implementing national plans as part of the SUN movement. (AN/transl.fl)