ON WORLD FOOD DAY, WFP SAYS INVESTMENT IN NUTRITION IS KEY TO UNLOCKING A BETTER FUTURE
FREETOWN – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is marking World Food Day on 16 October by highlighting the power of nutrition to transform individuals, societies and economies, and the need to make it central to all development efforts.
“Undernourished girls and boys face barriers in health, in school performance and later, in the workplace, which limit their human potential and their capacity to contribute to the societies in which they live,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.
“Prioritising nutrition today is an investment in our collective global future. The investment must involve food, agriculture, health and education systems,” she said.
Today some 842 million people – more than one in eight people in the world – suffer from chronic hunger. Yet even more – around two billion people – lack the vitamins and minerals needed to live healthy lives.
If the global community invested US$1.2 billion per year for five years on reducing micronutrient deficiencies, the benefits in better health, fewer child deaths and increased future earnings would generate gains worth US$15.3 billion.
“Here in Sierra Leone, WFP is providing short-term and long-term interventions in order to simultaneously tackle the immediate and underlying causes of poverty, hunger and malnutrition by supporting school children through school feeding, the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in children aged 6–59 months, pregnant and lactating women and HIV and tuberculosis patients. Additionally, WFP works to prevent stunting by targeting the first 1,000 days and children aged 6–23 months. As a long-term measure, WFP provides support to sustainable agriculture and rural development, as well as supporting the smallholder farmers through purchasing local produce and their capacity building,” said WFP Country Director Gon Myers.
The theme of this year’s World Food Day is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.”
Providing food assistance to 97 million people worldwide, here are some of the ways WFP focuses on nutrition:
- Rapidly increasing the number of children and new mothers who receive new nutritionally enhanced food products.
- Focusing on the crucial 1,000 day window – from the womb to two years of age – where getting sufficient nutrients and calories is crucial for full growth.
- Stepping up assistance through cash and vouchers when food is available in markets, so consumers can buy more fresh and varied local foods.
- Emphasising dietary diversity and fresh foods in its school feeding programmes, by Working with private partners and research institutes to assess the nutritional impact of providing fortified rice in school meal
- Supporting the creation of a solid evidence base to guide countries in their nutrition policies and strategies, such as the recent Cost of Hunger in Africa study, led by the African Union
To know more about WFP’s nutrition work in Sierra Leone, visit our dedicated country page:
http://www.wfp.org/countries/sierra-leone
WFP celebrates World Food Day with its sister UN food agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
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