LATIN AMERICA:
South-South Cooperation
to Fight Child
Malnutrition
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO (IPS) -
Cooperation between
Latin American
countries, which is
cheap, efficient and
horizontal, could
fast-track the fight
against child
malnutrition, Nils
Kastberg, the regional
director of the United
Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), said at a
conference held in the
Chilean capital.
Kastberg called on Latin
American and Caribbean
countries to commemorate
the 200th anniversary of
their independence from
Spain in 2010 with a
specific goal in mind:
ensuring that no child
is undernourished. In
his view, the challenge
could be achieved, with
political will and a
pan-American spirit, by
harnessing South-South
cooperation.
"Instead of talking
about heroes, tombs and
great national leaders,"
the region could take up
the challenge of
ensuring that as of Jan.
1, 2010, no pregnant
woman will suffer from
anaemia, which can
affect the birthweight
of her baby, and no
child will be left
without the support he
or she needs to
eradicate malnutrition
once and for all, he
said. Bicentennial
celebrations of
independence from the
Spanish empire began in
2004 in Haiti, but most
countries will be
marking two centuries of
independence between
2008 and 2010. That is
why the UNICEF
representative is
proposing 2010 as the
target.
Kastberg was one of the
speakers on Tuesday, the
second and final day of
a regional ministerial
conference, "Towards the
Eradication of Child
Malnutrition in Latin
America and the
Caribbean," held in
Santiago.
Organised by the Chilean
government and the World
Food Programme (WFP),
this was the first
ministerial level
meeting on child
malnutrition ever held
in the region. Two
subregional technical
meetings had taken place
previously.
Malnutrition, causing
low weight for age, and
particularly chronic
malnutrition, which
produces stunting (low
height for age), have
irreversible physical
and cognitive
consequences in children
under three. Seven
percent of children
under five in Latin
America and the
Caribbean suffer from
malnutrition, and 16
percent -- over nine
million children -- from
chronic malnutrition.
Guatemala has the
highest prevalence of
chronic malnutrition in
the region.
In addition to depriving
children of their full
development potential,
undernutrition generates
higher health and
education costs and
reduces countries’
productivity, because of
lower educational
attainments by
malnourished children,
and fewer people of
working age due to
higher mortality.
Halving the proportion
of extremely poor and
hungry people by 2015,
with 1990 figures as the
baseline, is the first
Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) agreed by the
United Nations General
Assembly in 2000.
One of the indicators to
measure achievement of
this goal is the
prevalence of
underweight children
under five years of age.
But as chronic
malnutrition is the real
problem, because it has
irreversible effects on
the intellectual
capacity of children as
they grow, "politically
it has been agreed that
this must be the main
indicator to measure
hunger in the region,"
Kastberg said.
This "interpretation" by
Latin America and the
Caribbean may be
"exported" to other
regions of the world, he
said.
He said indigenous
communities and migrants
are two of the most
vulnerable populations
that could benefit from
South-South cooperation
on child malnutrition.
There have already been
experiences of
cross-border
cooperation, where
immigrants are covered
by the health system,
even when their status
is irregular, and of
training courses for
customs personnel, he
said.
Countries could learn
from each other’s
experiences of, for
example, conditional
cash transfer programmes
such as Mexico’s Plan
Oportunidad (Opportunity
Plan) and Brazil’s Bolsa
Familia (Family Grant)
programme. These
initiatives, which have
increased in number in
recent years, aim
directly at poverty,
which is the underlying
cause of child
undernutrition, he said.
"South-South cooperation
is a goldmine the region
has not yet learned to
exploit. A
continent-wide strategy
needs to be developed,"
said Cristina Lazo,
executive director of
the Chilean Agency for
International
Cooperation (AGCI).
"There will always be
experiences and best
practices to share,
independently of each
country’s level of
development," she said.
Chile has offered to
coordinate a concrete
working agenda over the
next few years.
"To work out a
South-South strategy we
need receiving countries
to specify their needs,
and donor countries to
say what they can
offer," she said.
Kastberg proposed
developing an inventory
of experiences and best
practices derived from
programmes undertaken to
date, and presenting
them at a world
conference on
South-South cooperation
that, he announced,
would be held next year
within the region under
the auspices of the
United Nations.
Germán Valdivia, the
regional coordinator of
the WFP’s Knowledge
Management Initiative,
gave out the address of
an Internet portal
created by the agency,
which in his view could
be a useful tool for
South-South cooperation
aimed at ending hunger
and malnutrition.
The website, Nutrinet
(http://www.nutrinet.org),
posts news and
descriptions of
successful practices and
innovative programmes.
The portal covers five
thematic areas: mother
and child nutrition,
school feeding
programmes, vitamins and
minerals, HIV/AIDS and
food emergencies.
Among the countries
describing their work on
the site, one of whose
goals is to facilitate
discussion among
experts, are Bolivia,
Colombia, Cuba,
Guatemala, Panama and
Peru.
|
|
|
|
|
|
