COVID-19 could push 7 million children towards hunger & malnutrition: Chiefs of UN bodies

The coronavirus pandemic is hampering food distribution across the world and is severely impacting children, say heads of the four United Nations body - WHO, World Food Programme, UNICEF, and FAO, in an analysis published in The Lancet journal. The leaders of these organisations wrote that the crisis is undermining nutrition across the globe, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The leaders estimated that nearly 7 million children would suffer from malnutrition during the first 12 months of the pandemic, 80 percent of them in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. 

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The four chiefs in The Lancet suggest that without timely action 'child wasting', which in malnutrition means low weight-for-height, could rise 14.3 percent. Tedros and colleagues say that strategies adopted to block the spread of the virus, including physical distancing, lockdown, school closure, are impacting low- and middle-income families as they are not being able to avail fresh and affordable foods and are relying on nutrient-poor alternatives. The leaders in the analysis say that the agencies have estimated a minimum of $2.4 billion is immediately needed to protect these children. 

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'Call for action to protect children'

"This $2·4 billion estimate includes an essential package of four life-saving interventions: prevention of wasting in children at risk; treatment for children who are wasted; biannual vitamin A supplementation for children aged 6–59 months (90% coverage); and mass communication for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding that focuses on caregivers or families of children aged 0–23 months. As leaders of four UN agencies, we are issuing a call for action to protect children's right to nutrition in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.," the chiefs wrote in The Lancet. 

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Tedros A Ghebreyesus is Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Henrietta H Fore is the Executive Director of UNICEF, David M Beasley is Executive Director of the World Food Programme, and Qu Dongyu is Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. These four leaders together contributed to the analysis published in The Lancet. 

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