1.5 million beneficiaries from its food aid programme
Preventing child hunger and malnutrition must be international community’s top priority in tackling food-pricing crisis, says World Vision
| 1. | One of the world’s largest humanitarian organisations has announced a 1.5 million drop in the number of people receiving its food aid. |
| 2. | World Vision, whose work includes food programmes in 29 countries, blamed the soaring cost of food and unmet donor aid commitments for a 23% decrease in the number of people it was able to provide with food aid. |
| 3. | “Despite our best efforts, more than a million of our beneficiaries are no longer receiving food aid,” said World Vision International President Dean Hirsch. “Around 577,000 of these are children who urgently need enough healthy food to thrive. |
| 4. | “This pricing crisis is likely to take at least two years to stabilise. That is far too long for the millions of children under five who need sufficient levels of nutrition now to develop properly. Without enough healthy food children under five can suffer irreversible, impaired brain development and stunted physical development. This has tragic implications for a child’s education and future employment potential.” |
| 5. | The World Bank estimates that the recent rise in food prices could push another 100 million people deeper into poverty. Ten per cent of these will be children under 5. |
Higher food prices aggravate malnutrition, stunting |
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| 6. | The food price crisis is making a terrible situation even worse for many children in developing countries. Malnutrition already contributes to the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under five every year. Insufficient nutrition has also stunted the development of 178 million pre-school children in developing countries. Wasting (low weight for height) affects more than 55 million pre-school children annually.* Malnourished children are also more likely to suffer and die from diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea, acute respiratory illness, malaria and measles. |
| 7. | “Aside from the awful effects of malnutrition on children themselves, imagine the devastating impact increased malnutrition levels will ultimately have on nations whose struggling economies are in desperate need of a strong, healthy and educated future workforce,” said Mr. Hirsch. |
| 8. | “The international community must ensure that preventing child hunger and malnutrition is the top priority in the search for a solution to the current food pricing crisis.” |
| Call for funding the world food shortfall | |
| 9. | Though price increases are a major reason for the fall in food aid recipients, another is the failure by some donors to follow through on funding commitments made to the World Food Programme—one of World Vision’s largest source of food aid. |
| 10. | The lack of available funds, combined with the rising prices, has caused some regular food delivery channels to dry up, and has prevented World Vision from launching several new food aid delivery projects where they are needed. In some countries it has even caused the organisation to halt food aid programming. |
| 11. | World Vision is therefore calling on governments and other donors to fund the $500 million World Food Programme shortfall. It is also urging all donors to meet any food aid funding commitments it has made including those to the WFP. |
| 12. | “Of course, food aid by itself is not a panacea for hunger and malnutrition,” said Walter Middleton, World Vision’s Vice President for Food Programming and Management Group. |
| 13. | “Breastfeeding children need healthy mothers, small-scale farmers need support to grow food, communities need help to mitigate the effects of natural disasters,” Middleton said. “Therefore, the international community must also act now to establish a fund that supports those projects that will prevent vulnerable communities from becoming malnourished as a result of the pricing crisis. Wait too long to act, and treating millions of malnourished men, women and children will prove a huge undertaking. Prevention is considerably cheaper and more effective than cure. |
| 14. | “If the international community does not act swiftly, then not only will rising food prices undermine the poverty gains of the last five to 10 years, but they will ultimately put a brake on developing countries’ chances for any real future development through its youngest citizens.” |
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Note to editors:
- World Vision is an international Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. Motivated by our Christian faith, we are dedicated to serving the world's most vulnerable people. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender.
- World Vision has 31,000 staff working in around 100 countries worldwide. It currently has food programmes in 29 countries and, in 2007, 450,000 metric tons of food helped feed millions of people
- *Malnutrition figures from the Lancet’s Maternal and Children Undernutrition Series, Jan 2008
Help us make the world a better and safer place for children.
World Vision is a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We serve more than 100 million people and work in 98 countries around the globe. Through child sponsorship, 3.4 million children benefit from having clean water, food and agriculture, healthcare, education and microfinance.
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