Brussels, 27/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - More than 165 million children aged under five suffer from malnutrition and 2.6 million children die from it every year (90% in Africa and Asia). By the end of 2014, 500,000 children would have been exposed to acute malnutrition and for the European Parliament, this is unacceptable. Eradicating this scourge, which could be prevented if the political will existed, is an urgent challenge that should be made into an absolute priority, MEPs underlined on Thursday 27 November in Strasbourg, during a debate on child malnutrition in developing countries.
The final declaration from the FAO conference on good food and the fight against malnutrition held in Rome last week, sought to reduce this scourge by 40%.
The European Parliament welcomed this and the EU efforts made, particularly the commitment it had made to spend €3.5 billion between 2014-20 to improve nutrition in some of the poorest countries in the world (50 countries, including 40 in Africa), in order to attain the goal of reducing the number of children aged under five suffering from stunted growth, by 7 million by 2025.
The EU, however, is being urged to do more. MEPs believe that they need to support small local farmers in developing countries, put into place action plans by mobilising long-term resources, fight against land grabs in Africa and invest more in education and gender equality. This is a substantial challenge because girls aged under five are three times more likely to suffer the risk of serious malnutrition than boys of the same age. Facilitating women's access to agriculture would, according to MEPs, significantly improve the situation. A multi-sectoral plan for the first thousand days of a child's life will also be decisive.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, thanked Linda McAvan, the president of the development committee, for having created this debate. He indicated that he wanted to coordinate EU efforts with those of international partners. He acknowledged that women, local farmers and land governance were essential points. He announced that “the speeding up of initiatives confirms that the Commission was right to make nutrition one of the key points in the development agenda. Given the strong interest of member states, the Italian presidency of the Council is preparing conclusions to improve coordination and reaffirm the EU's leadership”. (AN)