NGER A LIFE FREE FROM HUNGER - Save the Children

a life free from hunger
THE FIRST 1,000 DAYS OF LIFE – BEGINNING WITH CONCEPTION,
THROUGH A MOTHER’S PREGNANCY AND UP UNTIL THE AGE OF
TWO – IS THE MOST CRITICAL PERIOD IN A CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT.
Almost half of children in low- and middle-income countries – 47% of under fives – are
affected by anaemia, 23 which impairs cognitive and physical development, and reduces
physical performance and productivity. Half of anaemia cases are due to iron deficiency. 24
According to the World Health Organization, 42% of pregnant women – 56 million
women – suffer from anaemia, 25 which increases the risk that mothers and their babies
will die at childbirth or that the baby will have a low birth-weight or pre-term delivery.
If a mother is anaemic, her infant is more likely to be anaemic too, leading to greater
risk of impairments in future mental and physical development. Anaemia is estimated to
contribute to more than 115,000 maternal deaths and 591,000 perinatal deaths – ie, that
occur in the period immediately before and after birth – globally per year. 26
THREE TYPES OF MALNUTRITION
Stunting: a child is too short for their age – a result of chronic malnutrition
Wasting: a child’s weight is too low for their height – a result of acute
malnutrition
Micronutrient deficiency: a lack of one or more essential vitamins and
minerals, such as vitamin A, iron or zinc.
WHAT CAUSES MALNUTRITION
At the most immediate level, malnutrition is caused by inadequate diet and by infection.
These primary causes of malnutrition are influenced by food access and availability,
healthcare, water and sanitation, and the way a child is cared for (for example,
whether the infant is breastfed and whether basic hygiene practices are used, such as
hand-washing).
Underlying all of these primary and intermediate causes of malnutrition are poverty,
lack of resources (eg, financial and human resources), and social, economic and political
factors (eg, women’s status) (see figure 1).
WHY ARE SO MANY CHILDREN MALNOURISHED
A child growing up in South Sudan needs to eat food with the right amount of calories,
vitamins and minerals to have a chance to grow up healthy and productive just as much
as a child born in Southampton, Stockholm or Seattle. Yet many children in developing
countries have diets that consist almost entirely of starchy staple foods, like rice, maize
4