The United Nations (UN) agencies have called for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in 15 countries, hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.
The call was made in a statement issued by five UN agencies. The UN had listed some countries that are hardest hit by the unprecedented food and nutrition crises.
According to the statement, conflicts, climate shocks, the ongoing impacts of Covid-19 and rising costs of living are leaving increasing numbers of children acutely malnourished.
It said the five UN agencies are: Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Food Programme (WFP), and World Health Organisation, (WHO).
The statement said that they called for accelerated progress on the ‘Global Action Plan on Child Wasting‘. “This is aimed to prevent, detect and treat acute malnutrition among children in the worst-affected countries, which are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, it stated.
Others are Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan and Yemen.
It further said that the Global Action Plan addressed the need for a multi-sectoral approach and highlighted priority actions across maternal and child nutrition through the food, health, water and sanitation, and social protection systems.
