UNICEF launches new report on child, maternal nutrition across world

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday launched a new report on child and maternal nutrition, saying that efforts to ensure child and maternal nutrition are among the global endeavors to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which call for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

The 119-page report, titled "Tracking Progress on Child and Maternal Nutrition," provides the most recent health and nutritiondata, improved program strategies and progress achieved to reduce the global burden of child and maternal undernutrition. It also provides information that demonstrates how improving child nutrition is entirely feasible.

"Undernutrition contributes to more than one third of all deaths in children under the age of five," Ann M. Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF, said in the foreword of the report. "It does this by stealing children's strength and making illness more dangerous. An undernourished child struggles to withstand an attack of pneumonia, diarrhea or other illness -- and illness often prevails."

"The level of child and maternal undernutrition remains unacceptable throughout the world, with 90 percent of the developing world's chronically undernourished (stunted) children living in Asia and Africa," the report said. "Detrimental and often undetected until severe, undernutrition undermines the survival, growth and development of children and women, and it diminishes the strength and capacity of nations."

"Brought about by a combined lack of quality food, frequent attacks of infectious disease and deficient care, undernutrition continues to be widely prevalent in both developing and industrialized countries, to different degrees and in different forms," the report said.

Eighty percent of the developing world's stunted children live in 24 countries, including India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnam, Sudan, Kenya, Mexico and South Africa, the report said.

The 18 countries with the highest prevalence of stunting among children under 5 years old include Afghanistan, Yemen, Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Burundi, Madagascar, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Zambia. The prevalence rate in these 18 countries is 45 percent or more, with the rate in nine of these countries topping 50 percent.

One of the indicators used to assess progress toward the MDGs "is the prevalence of children under 5 years old who are underweight, or whose weight is less than it should be," said the report.

"Children need enough good-quality food, they need to stay healthy and they need sufficient care from their families and communities," it added.

"Children who are undernourished, not optimally breastfed or suffering from macronutrient deficiencies have substantially lower chances of survival than children who are well nourished," the report said. "They are much more likely to suffer from a serious infection and to die from common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, measles, pneumonia and malaria, as well as HIV and AIDS."

"Stunting affects approximately 195 million children under 5 years old in the developing world, or about one in three," it said. "Africa and Asia have high stunting rates -- 40 percent and 36 percent, respectively -- and more than 90 percent of the world's stunted children live on those two continents."

"Since 1990, stunting prevalence in the developing world has declined from 40 percent to 29 percent, a relative reduction of 38percent," it said. "Progress has been particularly notable in Asia, where prevalence dropped from 44 percent around 1990 to 30 percent around 2008. This reduction is influenced by marked declines in China."

UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS.

UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.