- According to Save the Children, Kenya is among the top 10 countries where at least 25 per cent of the population is facing chronic hunger.
- This has been attributed to economic instability, conflicts and repeated climate shocks.
Image: FILE
About 420,000 babies were born undernourished in Kenya this year, new data by Save the Children shows.
Projections indicate that an estimated 942,000 children aged below five years and 135,000 pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers are acutely malnourished and in need of treatment in Kenya.
According to Save the Children, Kenya is among the top 10 countries where at least 25 per cent of the population is facing chronic hunger.
This has been attributed to economic instability, conflicts and repeated climate shocks.
Comparatively, the number of undernourished babies a decade ago was 261,000, signifying a notable increase hunger rate from 18.1 per cent to 27.8 per cent.
Other countries affected include DRC, Uganda, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mozambique, Yemen, Chad, and Zambia.
Save the Children’s Country Director for Kenya and Madagascar Yvonne Arunga said that even though huge progress has been made in the past to reduce global hunger, the progress started to significantly decline in 2019, largely due to economic instability, conflicts, and the worsening climate crisis.
“As more children come into the world, they are being born into a world where extreme weather events have become more frequent than ever,” Arunga said.
“And sadly the future of these children is already compromised before they even take their first breath. We must protect their childhoods and futures before it’s too late,” she added.
The organisation is now calling for greater collaboration, dialogue and investment across sectors to bolster response planning and implementation and abilities to act early and prevent predictable shocks from turning into crises.
“Hunger is not a lost cause. We have the power to significantly reduce the number of malnourished children right now like we have in the past,” Arunga said.
“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. This is a global hunger crisis, and it requires a global solution but starting closer home here in Kenya.”
It is further calling on leaders to scale up low-cost interventions to prevent and treat malnutrition.
These include community-based treatment for acute malnutrition, supporting and protecting breastfeeding and investing in community and primary-level healthcare.
Globally, it is estimated that at least 17.6 million children will be born into hunger this year, or about 33 children a minute, which is a 22 per cent jump from a decade ago.