UNICEF: Hundreds of millions of children live in "food poverty"

More than one in four children in the world under the age of 5 lives in "severe food poverty", which means that more than 180 million children are at risk of suffering serious consequences if they do not have a nutritious and diversified diet, warns UNICEF. A "shocking" number of children "survive on a very poor diet, consuming products from two or fewer food groups," Harriet Torlesse, one of the authors of the report published last week, told AFP. According to the recommendations of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), young children should consume daily foods from at least five of the eight food groups (breast milk, cereals, fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin A, meat or fish, eggs, dairy products , legumes, other fruits and vegetables). But 440 million children under the age of 5 (or 66%) living in the approximately one hundred low- and middle-income countries analyzed do not have access to these five groups every day and therefore live in "poverty grocery shop". And of these, approximately 181 million (or 27%) eat at best two food groups. These "children who consume only two food groups per day, for example rice and a little milk, are 50% more likely to suffer from severe forms of malnutrition", warns the head of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, in a press release. Severe forms of malnutrition, such as exhaustion, extreme emaciation that can lead to the death of a child. And if these children survive and grow up, "they don't thrive. They don't do as well in school, and as adults it's harder for them to earn a living, which perpetuates a cycle of poverty from one generation to the next," he explains. Harriet Torlesse. The brain, heart and immune system, which are important for development and protection against disease, depend on vitamins, minerals and proteins," insists this nutrition expert. This severe food poverty is concentrated in 20 countries, with particularly worrying situations in Somalia (63% of children under 5 affected), Guinea (54%), Guinea-Bissau (53%) and Afghanistan (49%).

Although there are no data available for rich countries, children from poor households are certainly not exempt from these nutritional deficiencies either.

The report pays particular attention to the situation in Gaza, where the Israeli offensive provoked by the unprecedented attack by Hamas on October 7 has led to the "collapse of the food and health systems". Based on five sets of data collected via SMS between December and April from families benefiting from a financial aid program in the Gaza Strip, UNICEF estimates that 9 out of 10 children in this area live in severe food poverty. These figures are not necessarily representative, but they illustrate the catastrophic deterioration of the situation in 2020, when only 13% of children were living in this situation, according to the UN agency. At the global level, noting only "slow progress" in the last ten years in the fight against food poverty, the report calls for the establishment of social protection and humanitarian aid mechanisms for the most vulnerable.