James Morris and Robert Glasser October 16, 2006 Our children are growing up in an increasingly competitive world - one in which the race to the top starts earlier than ever. In most wealthy countries, such as Australia, schoolchildren face standardised tests at an early age that can set the pace for the rest of their lives. But it's been a long time since we had to worry about our children getting little or no food at all. Unfortunately, for 400 million children in the poorest countries, malnutrition is still the burning issue. This is not "merely" a question of a child going hungry, being underweight, unhealthy or physically stunted from malnutrition. Researchers have now documented that young children who are malnourished tend to grow up with significantly lower IQs than those who are well-fed. Many millions of the poorest children, especially in countries such as Niger, Chad or Bangladesh, will probably not go to school at all, as their households need every hand to make ends meet. Other poor children may attend school sporadically. With their last chance to escape the poverty trap thus diminished, the potential of another generation is lost. Today is World Food Day, an occasion to remember the 850 million chronically hungry people around the world and to remind ourselves that after decades of decline, that number has actually been growing by millions each year since the mid-1990s. Hunger still kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. We can make a difference. We can afford to help, but we need to develop a food first policy - poverty cannot be eliminated until hunger and malnutrition are laid to rest. We should prevent hunger from cheating children of hope. Let us work together to help end hunger for the children, through simple intervention such as mother and child health and nutrition programs, and school meals to boost enrolment and attendance. James Morris is executive director of the UN World Food Program. Robert Glasser is chief executive of CARE Australia.
top of page