T. Ramakrishnan
Regrets silent emergency evokes little reaction
CHENNAI: The world is generous when the spotlight is on an emergency situation. But, a silent emergency evokes little reaction from the international community. “Four hundred million children in the world are suffering from hunger. But, we are not paying attention to them,” according to Pedro Medrano, regional director (Latin America and the Caribbean) of the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations’ food aid agency.
Dr. Medrano told The Hindu on Friday that his organisation was supporting governments implement schemes aimed at providing mid-day meals to school students and ensuring nutrition for women and children. “But we are having problems in getting resources from the international community to support this kind of programme, particularly in middle-income countries,” he said.
Explaining the gravity of the problem of malnutrition and deprivation in Latin America, he said a study conducted by the WFP and the Economic Commission of Latin America had revealed that the cost of hunger was equivalent to approximately 6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of each nation in the region. It had a tremendous economic impact.
“Apart from moral obligation, there is also an economic reason to solve it. A malnourished child will not be able to benefit from the school system; will not have productive work and will certainly have health problems. All the investment that a society makes in health, education, nutrition will not benefit the child,” he said.
Calling for a shift in the approach of the donor community, he said the worst thing that could happen to hungry children was to be born “in a place or a country where there is no civil war or an emergency. Nobody cares for middle income countries.” Today, the attention of the donors was mostly concentrated on countries where per capita was below $ 900.
The WFP regional director said that 50 per cent of children of Guatemala, a middle-income country, were stunted. In Latin America, about 80 per cent of the undernourished children lived in the middle income countries.
Asked why the donors were not interested in supporting such countries, he said their reason was that there were enough resources in the countries to take care of the problem. Referring to the Indian conditions, Dr. Medrano said there was no shortage of social protection programmes. The issue here was how to utilise them and access them, particularly by the most deprived.
About his organisation, he said the agency worked with governments and the U.N. system, covering the remotest parts of the world. Every year, it fed nearly 100 million people. He quoted his executive director Josette Sheeran who had said “we are in the deepest field, delivering food and life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable, in a way that no other agencies can do.”
He said his organisation was also prepared to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences between India and Latin America in tackling the problems of hunger, deprivation and malnutrition. Stressing that India had done great work in food security, the WFP official urged the country to share its experiences with developing nations.
‘Extend definition’
On the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Dr. Medrano suggested that the definition of employment should be enlarged to include work in community health campaign, sanitation and crèches.