qoeldISLAMABAD: While climate shocks such as floods and droughts are increasingly threatening children’s access to food, latest estimates show more than 1.4 million babies were born into hunger in Pakistan in 2024.
Pakistan, one of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, saw the second highest number of babies born into hunger among countries with over 20 per cent under-nourishment, according to the analysis of Save the Children, an international non-governmental organisation, released on Monday.
At least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024, or about 35 children a minute, with conflict and climate crises combining to drive at least 800,000 more children into hunger over the year, the analysis shows.
According to the analysis, more than 21.5m children were born into hunger in 2001. In 2018, the number dropped to about 14.5m but then jumped up to 15.3m in 2019. In 2024, there were an estimated 18.2m undernourished births at a minimum.
Save the Children says 345,000 people in Gaza could face catastrophic hunger in coming months
According to UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) data, the number of children born into hunger rose by around 5 per cent in 2024 compared to a year earlier and 19pc more than the 15.3m recorded in 2019 when progress on tackling childhood hunger began to stall.
Conflict, displacement, extreme weather events and the increasing relative cost of food have all contributed towards a decline in the children’s nutrition globally, it says.
Children born into hunger this year include babies born in countries facing a risk of famine or catastrophic conditions of acute food insecurity including South Sudan, Haiti, Mali and Sudan, where famine-levels of malnutrition have spread across half of the country’s 18 states.
In addition, there was a warning in early November of a strong likelihood that famine was imminent or already underway in the northern Gaza Strip and 345,000 people across Palestinian enclave could face catastrophic hunger in the coming months.
The occupied Palestinian territory is not included in the annual FAO data on undernourishment, but the warning came from the leading global authority on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Global Head of Hunger and Nutrition at Save the Children, Hannah Stephenson, says “over 18 million newborns this year — 35 children a minute — were born into a world where hunger is their reality from their first moments of life. Hunger knows no boundaries. It erodes childhoods, drains children’s energy and risks robbing them of their futures.
Children should be free to play or expand their minds in class. No child should be worrying about when their next meal will be.
“We need immediate funding and safe access for humanitarian lifesaving services for children and families in desperate need of food, nutrition, healthcare, safe water, sanitation and hygiene, social protection and livelihoods support. We have the tools to significantly reduce the number of malnourished children right now, like we have in the past.
“However, if we do not tackle the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, we will continue to see the reversal of progress made for children,” she said.
The child rights organisation says children are always the most vulnerable in food crises and without enough to eat and the right nutritional balance, children are at high risk of becoming acutely malnourished. Malnutrition can cause stunting, impede mental and physical development, increase the risk of contracting deadly diseases, and ultimately cause death.
In countries where at least 20pc of the population is facing hunger, Congo was expected to have the highest number of babies born undernourished this year at around 1.6m with conflict remaining a key driver of hunger in in the country and globally.
Save the Children is calling on world leaders to address the root causes of acute food and nutrition insecurity including working harder to reduce conflicts, tackling the climate crisis and global inequality, and by building more resilient health, nutrition and social protection systems.
Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024
