Proper
nutrition is crucial in a child’s first 1,000 days of life as lack of it leads
to stunting and affects cognitive functioning. A global aid agency put the cost
of child malnutrition at $7 billion in a year. -- AFP
Child malnutrition cost the Philippines $7
billion or nearly 3% of its GDP in one year in terms of education spending and
lost productivity, while hunger-related stunting is on the rise among children,
a global aid agency said.
A report by Save the Children found that the
combined losses, calculated with data from 2013, are more than triple the cost
of damage inflicted by 15 natural disasters that hit the Southeast Asian
country last year.
“Stunting costs are a drag on the economy and
impacts all of us, not just the child and the family. It keeps the Filipino
economy poorer by 3%. If you add that up over time -- it’s an anchor to
progress,” said Ned Olney, head of Save the Children in the Philippines, by
Skype from Manila.
Stunting is defined as low height-for-age and
is measured by comparing the height of a child against the international
benchmark for a child of the same age.
Caused by a poor diet in a child’s first
1,000 days of life, stunting has severe, irreversible consequences on physical
health and cognitive functioning.
The report, citing government data, said that
after 25 years of steady improvement, the prevalence of stunting among Filipino
children under five increased to 33% in 2015 from 30% in 2013.
“That’s a 10% increase in a two-year period,
so that is devastating. We’re going in the wrong direction,” Mr. Olney said.
“Even though you have an economy that’s
humming along at 6% to 7% a year, you have an increase in poverty from 24% to
25% of all families, and you haven’t addressed the issue of access to food.”
The report said of the estimated 49,000
students who had to repeat a grade level in school, 15% repeated as a result of
under-five stunting. It estimated that $27 million was required to cover the
costs of grade repetitions for these stunted children.
It calculated lost productivity at $7 billion
based on reduced productivity among stunted workers and complete loss of
productivity due to premature under-five child deaths linked to hunger.
Meanwhile, urban poverty and hunger are
worsening, Mr. Olney said. In the past, Save the Children had focused feeding
programmers on rural areas but this year started providing emergency food
therapy for “starving, skeletal children” in urban areas.
Yet the hardest hit area remains the
conflict-plagued island of Mindanao, where 40% of children are stunted -- an
average seen in sub-Saharan Africa, he said.
Save the Children called for more investment
in nutrition programs for pregnant and lactating mothers and babies in their
first 1,000 days.
Mr. Olney also urged the government to
address issues such as water and sanitation, agriculture, education and
investment in overall productivity.
“Malnutrition is seen as disease burden to be
handled by the department of health. We know that doesn’t work,” he said.
“That’s treating the sick child, rather than
understanding why the child is malnourished. Countries that address poverty and
access to food have made progress in reducing malnutrition.”
Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment