In Guatemala, the cost of food and other basic survival items like clothing, housing, furniture, health, transport, and recreation have increased 20.1% during the last year.
These items are defined as the Canasta BásicaVital, CBV, Basic Survivial Basquet. According to INE, (Instituto Nacional de Estadística), National Institute of Statistics, who is in charge to monitor these indicators, this inflation rate is the worst since 1997.
The causes of the inflation are disputed, the remedies are also disputed. What is not disputable is the impact that this will have on the nutritional status of the most vulnerable population of the country, especially children.
In May 5-6, 2008, The Regional Ministerial Conference; "Towards the Eradication of Child Undernutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean", was held in Santiago, Chile.
This Regional Conference was organized by the World Food Program, WFP, FAO and other United Nations Chapters.
The agenda and the Santiago declaration address the issue of nutritional impact extensively.
Agenda of the Conference:
Latin America and the whole world are facing the worst food crisis in recent years, created by soaring food prices in the international markets. Prices of high-consumption food commodities such as maize, wheat and rice have in some cases increased more than 100 percent. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this increase in food prices could easily augment the level of poverty and indigence by more than 20 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean. These developments could threaten food security and undermine regional progress achieved in the nutritional status of the most vulnerable populations, who are bound to bear the brunt of this emergency.
Additionally, this crisis might threaten social cohesion and compromise the achievement of the MDGs in the region. At the World Economic Forum on LAC held in Cancun in April, Presidents from Central America warned about the impact that shortage of food commodities could have on the region's political stability. Given the current context of incremental priorities and emerging challenges, it is very important to focus our efforts on the most vulnerable groups . Protecting children while they are more susceptible-particularly before the age of 5-is urgently required to prevent the life-lasting effects of undernutrition.
The international community has expressed its concern about the seriousness of this situation. We are facing "a perfect storm of things coming together at the same time," said Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, when requesting the assistance of all states to formalize national food aid policies to help the poorest countries in the world. At the same time, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that "disruptions may occur in the economic environment, trade balances, and current accounts, so that in the end of the day most governments, having done well during the last five or ten years, will see what they have done totally destroyed and their legitimacy facing the population destroyed, also."
According to Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, the soaring food prices have created "a silent tsunami" which has left 100 million people in poverty, and forced the World Food Programme to face the biggest challenge in the history of the organization. "This is the new face of hunger -- the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are," said the Executive Director.
The consequences of high food prices are devastating: families that currently spend more on food than in other commodities or services will be forced to cut on health and education expenditures. Many households will have to eliminate consumption of nutritious commodities and concentrate on acquiring only the cheapest food. Others will have to face the difficult decision of diminishing calorie intake, going from 3 to 2 meals or even to one or none.
In this new environment, the Regional Ministerial Conference "Towards the eradication of child undernutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean," offers an opportunity to emphasize the importance of national programmes for social protection, key interventions to protect child nutrition and the remaining opportunities for achieving the MDGs in the region. The Conference will provide a forum for sharing successful experiences, promoting south-south collaboration, strengthening relationships and developing support mechanisms for the countries in the region.
This Conference will be a call for action. Indeed, throughout the meeting, governments will be encouraged to prioritize the fight against hunger, placing the eradication of child undernutrition at the top of the policy agenda, promoting opportunities for dialogue at the national and international level and fostering cooperation initiatives. Key players at the international cooperation arena will be invited to join efforts, catalyzing coordinated actions to eradicate child undernutrition. Today is the moment for bold and innovative measures to face the current problems and succeed in overcoming them.
The Santiago Declaration signed by the government representatives reads as follows:
Santiago declaration: Towards the eradication of child undernutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Vice-President of Guatemala, Ministers, Deputy-ministers and official representatives of the governments of Latin America and The Caribbean, participating in the Regional Meeting "Towards the Eradication of Child Undernutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean", held in Santiago de Chile on May 5th and 6th, 2008,
Recognizing that:
Despite improvements in the nutritional status obtained by the countries of the region during the last decades, important deficits still exist: i) food and nutrition insecurity as revealed by chronic under-nutrition affecting 9 million children under five years of age; ii) micronutrient deficiencies, of iron for instance, resulting in anaemia of 50% of children under two years of age, a deficiency that also affects women of child bearing age, particularly during pregnancy; and iii) increasing prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity.
Among the determining factors of under-nutrition are inequality and social, cultural, economic and political exclusion of segments of the population, such as rural communities, indigenous people and afro-descendent (except in the Caribbean), resulting in national and regional averages that mask significant disparities.
Under-nutrition in children, particularly under three years of age, seriously jeopardizes individual and collective well-being through its negative impact on human development, health, learning, and productivity; by decreasing social cohesion and perpetuating poverty; and by slowing the social and economic development of nations.
Chronic under-nutrition in the first three years of life is particularly damaging as it occurs during the most critical phase of child growth and psychosocial and cognitive development. Therefore it is necessary to adopt measures for its prevention and control to avoid irreversible damage throughout the life cycle.
The knowledge and in some cases the resources to address this situation already exist but limited managerial capability and inadequate focusing on the most vulnerable segments of the population in terms of nutritional status, decrease the effectiveness of interventions aiming to prevent and control child under nutrition.
The sustained price increase of foods over the last three years has worsened the nutritional status through two effects: i) by increasing the prevalence of indigence and poverty in the region at the rate of 20 million people per year (ECLAC); and ii) by worsening the food and nutrition insecurity of low income households (over half of the population).
Food price stability, a global phenomena related to multiple and complex factors (commercial, climatic, financial, etc.), to a large extent overcomes the unilateral capabilities of the countries in the region; thus, the response should involve several approaches, including social protection networks, incentive for food production, optimizing the use of water, and strengthening transparency in food trade.
Within the framework of their own policies regarding food and nutrition security and their commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, many countries in the region have developed mid and long term programs to eradicate child under-nutrition with the support of WFP, FAO, PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, The World Bank, the IADB, INCAP, OAS and other international organizations.
Many countries have organized bilateral and multilateral mechanisms of South-South Cooperation as an effective tool to share successful experiences and good practices; this approach has been recognized and supported by international organizations as evidenced by the inclusion of a South-South and triangular cooperation agenda in the recent WFP-OAS Cooperation Agreement.
Express our determination to:
Continue to consider food and nutritional security in our countries as a "global, regional and national urgency", thus placing it at the highest level of the political agenda; giving it the highest priority in the poverty reduction and social protection strategies, allocating the needed resources; coordinating the various public policies in order to achieve an effective multi-sector approach.
Strengthen the fight against under-nutrition within the human rights framework, through several strategies: i) developing or strengthening integrated plans of action, evidence based and with built-in evaluation capabilities, to achieve food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable population groups, especially rural, marginal ethnic communities living in extreme poverty; ii) including nutrition interventions as a fundamental pillar of social protection programs, in particular those activities aimed at children under three, women of reproductive age, pregnant and lactating women and other groups with special nutritional needs; iii) promoting an increased food production, particularly by small agricultural farmers in rural areas, and improving their access to markets; iv) promoting policies that ensure the transparent performance of food markets at the national and international levels; v) strengthening the involvement of affected families and communities through mechanisms adopted by the countries such us popular participation and social control of programs; and vi) promoting social communication strategies that engender needed behavioural changes and keep nutrition at the top of the public agenda.
Consider that, according to evidence gathered in the region, effective prevention and control of child under-nutrition requires: i) the adoption of a culturally and gender sensitive, integrated family care approach that includes preventive and multi-sector food and nutrition activities (primary health care, reproductive health, social development, household agriculture, basic water and sanitation, finance, integral education, and others); ii) reflect the high priority placed on nutrition through the adoption of specific tools such as nutritional guidelines, epidemiological surveillance, and the specification of national goals to be achieved at particular dates; iii) population-based targeting of pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under three years of age, following a cultural and gender sensitive approach; iv) geographic-based targeting to provide immediate relief to people in the poorest rural and urban municipalities; v) the improvement of the food and nutritional security of poor and extremely poor households through integrated interventions of proved effectiveness, incorporating direct access to appropriate foods, nutrition education, as well as monetary and in-kind transfers; vi) the priority development of secure water and basic sanitation projects.
Back the urgent call to the international community to respond to this challenge in a coordinated way with intensified support to the most vulnerable countries in the region through the donation of food and/or other resources channelled through WFP to enable it to cope effectively with the increasing financial needs emerging from the global increase in food prices.
Demand joint actions by the specialized agencies of the United Nations system to support plans and programs formulated by the governments and back up the efforts of these UN agencies to support local food production and markets.
Use and support the existing knowledge management portal NUTRINET.org to facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge and best practices among countries, thereby strengthening national and regional efforts to eradicate child under-nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Assure South-South and triangular cooperation through diverse mechanisms, including: i) networks of countries with similar problems to allow a fast and adequate response to their specific needs and capabilities, in particular those identified in this Regional Ministerial Conference; and ii) facilitating the production of regional public goods which include, among others, joint response in emergency situations; the continuous exchange of knowledge and information on technical, economic and epidemiological issues; and the joint undertaking of research, technical assistance and human resource training initiatives.
Adopted in Santiago de Chile on May 6, 2008.
Source: http://www.erradicarladesnutricion.cl/
Photos: Ignacio de Wit
