Janet Ogundepo Globally, 181 million children under the age of five, representing one in four children, suffer from severe child food poverty in early childhood, a new report from the United Nations Children’s Fund reveals. The report further highlights that 65 per cent of these 181 million children reside in 20 countries, with 64 million in South Asia and 59 million in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study titled, “Child Food Poverty: Nutrition Deprivation in Early Childhood,” further reveals that the global food and nutrition crisis, along with conflicts and climate change crisis, is intensifying child food poverty.
It also notes that although children in volatile countries and poor households are particularly affected, children born in non-poor households also suffer from it. UNICEF defines child food poverty as the inability of children to access and consume a nutritious and diverse diet in early childhood. The report adds that child food poverty was particularly damaging in early childhood as insufficient dietary intake of essential nutrients impacts child survival, physical growth and cognitive development.
UNICEF also warns that child food poverty is driving child undernutrition and would increase the prevalence of child stunting. The World Health Organisation notes that stunting is when a child, due to chronic or recurrent malnutrition, is too short for his or her age. It adds that stunting contributes to child mortality and reduced physical and cognitive growth and dev.
