Walk raises funds and awareness of malnutrition in region

Thousands of people in the Middle East are marching on Sunday to raise funds to end hunger and create more awareness of the serious situation of malnutrition in parts of the region. The 'Fight Hunger: Walk the World' initiative, organised by the World Food Programme (WFP) and its partners, aims to be the largest worldwide public show of support for ending child hunger. Some 12 Middle Eastern countries took part in the event on Sunday. “Walk the World is an event to create awareness about child hunger and raise funds to put an end to it through school feeding programmes that bring children into the classroom," Mia Turner, a WFP Regional Public Information officer said from Cairo in Egypt. "In the Middle East there are still countries which are grappling with high malnutrition rates and this walk is to raise raise awareness about them as well," she added. The countries hardest hit by malnutrition in the region are Yemen and Iraq. Yemen, which has a population of some 18.7 million people is among the poorest countries with one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world. “Although food availability at the national level appears to be adequate in relation to the per capita requirements, a substantial section of the population does not meet food consumption requirements owing to poverty and a lack of resources.” The situation in the region as a whole has deteriorated since 1990 in terms of child nutrition, according to UNICEF’s global report, Progress For Children: A Report Card on Nutrition, released in May. Some 46 percent of all Yemeni children are underweight, and an estimated 53 percent of under-fives are stunted, the UNICEF report indicated. These high rates reflect the country’s widespread poverty and unemployment. Another country with an alarming situation is Iraq, where ongoing conflict has led to one in three Iraqi children between six months and five years suffering from either acute or chronic malnutrition, as stated in a report on food security recently on 11 May by the government and supported by UNICEF and WFP. “Increased unemployment rates, a deterioration in education standards and infrastructure, worsening health conditions and the instability of market prices are among the main factors directly responsible for a situation in which many people have become unable to afford basic food needs and are dependent on the public distribution system (PDS),” Turner explained. Disparities within countries are also significant, with children living in rural areas in the Middle East 1.7 times more likely to be underweight than those in urban areas, according to the report. Similarly, children living in the poorest households are more than twice as likely to be underweight as those living in the richest households in the region.