IRELAND AND the United Kingdom will push jointly next year for greater international action to help hundreds of millions of malnourished children, when Ireland heads the EU presidency and the UK leads the G8, the group representing the world’s biggest economies.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny attended a meeting in Downing Street yesterday called by UK prime minister David Cameron to discuss hunger, particularly the need to improve the nutrition offered during the first two years of life.
Mr Cameron demanded better research and development, particularly the development and use of drought-resistant plants; more involvement by the private sector; and pressure on countries receiving foreign aid to use it well.
“While people around the planet have been enjoying and competing in there’s another world where children don’t have enough to eat, and never get the start in life they deserve,” he said.
“The figures are shocking. One in three child deaths are linked to malnutrition and 171 million children are so malnourished by the age of two that they can never physically recover. That’s the terrible thing about this silent crisis. It harms for life.
“Even if malnourished children are able to fight off sickness and infection in their earliest years, their bodies and minds never fully develop,” he said.
Commitments made at the summit could put the world on track to meet the World Health Assembly target to reduce the number of children under five whose growth is stunted by 40 per cent by 2025, he said.
Mr Kenny said Ireland was already “in a position of leadership” because it was the only country to be spending 20 per cent of its overseas development aid budget on hunger, which, “given our history and our tradition since the time of the Famine”, has a particular importance for Ireland.
“Britain wants to move into that space also. We welcome that and we will work in a committed fashion during our presidency and with Britain as president of the G8, so is an important occasion in that sense.
“This problem is only going to get worse if it is not dealt with. There isn’t a single solution and Ireland is in a position to provide leadership on a range of areas,” Mr Kenny said before he went to Downing Street.
During the meeting, Mr Cameron said: “The challenge of malnutrition isn’t just about food. That’s just the symptom – and we need to tackle the causes. The problem is partly a failure of government.
“Farmers can farm and traders can trade, but without the rule of law and fair property rights they can’t be sure they can sell their crops. And without things like decent sanitation, accessible healthcare and basic education, malnutrition grows.”
Concern chief executive Tom Arnold, one of a number of experts invited to the meeting, said early-years nutrition – the so- called “first 1,000 days from conception” – dictated the path forever afterwards.
The Downing Street meeting was “hugely significant”, Mr Arnold said, since it could “galvanise political momentum and strengthen global efforts” between states, companies and NGOs to reduce hunger.
Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah, who was born in Somalia, also attended the conference, along with other sporting greats such as Brazilian footballer Pele and Ethiopian long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie.
HUNGER COMMITMENTS: MAIN POINTS
* Funding for research to develop drought-resistant and vitamin-enhanced crops over the next three years.
* Major food and pharmaceutical companies to combine to offer affordable food in developing countries.
* Actions to be targeted at smallholder farmers, the urban poor, under-fives and pregnant or breast-feeding mothers.
* Funding to use mobile telephone texts as an early-warning alarm of hunger “hot-spots”, so that nutrition can be moved more quickly.
