When the United Nations declares a famine, the world, rightly, snaps to attention. But after the immediate crisis recedes from public attention, the primary cause of the tragedy remains. Those now suffering from famine in Somalia have already suffered greatly from hunger and malnutrition.
As many as 200 million children under the age of five around the world are malnourished. According to a new World Vision report on children's health, more than 7,500 children under the age of five die every day as a result of a lack of nutrition. That's almost three million a year.
And when malnutrition doesn't kill, it causes lasting and devastating health problems.
World leaders have agreed, through the Millennium Development Goals, to reduce child mortality rates by two-thirds by 2015, and considerable progress has been made. The resources and knowledge exist; what is needed is a concerted effort to bridge the gap between what we know needs to be done and the delivery of life-saving programmes to families and communities.
Investment in nutrition in the first 1,000 days, from pregnancy to the age of two, is critical to a child's development.
To tackle the problem, education and health services must be provided at the family and community level. Too many are unaware that babies up to six months of age require nothing more than breast milk; it provides all the nutrition they need. Yet, fewer than 40 per cent of babies in the developing world are exclusively breastfed.
