LettersAmid a hunger crisis, strengthen food systems for children’s sake
- Readers discuss a global child hunger crisis, and why meaningful US-China diplomacy might have to wait till 2024
In parts of the ancient world, unwanted babies were sometimes abandoned and left to die, exposed to the elements.
This is not just a moral scandal, but it also makes no social or economic sense, given that the children lost to malnutrition might have been a country’s doctors, lawyers, social workers and teachers. They could have been producers, traders and consumers, as well as mothers and fathers themselves producing the next generation.
Families are left devastated when malnutrition kills or maims a child, but a community and a nation lose out too.
That is why I, in my role as World Vision International’s advocacy leader, attended the UN Food Systems Summit stocktaking event in Rome, Italy, late last month. Every child has the right to nutritious food; food systems must be more inclusive, sustainable and resilient to deliver better development outcomes for the most vulnerable children, families and communities.
At the UN Food Systems stocktaking event, World Vision advocated for investment in evidence-based action that improves nutrition for children.