Half of Poor Children in Afghanistan Face Malnutrition: Report

UN agencies warn that the economic impact of COVID-19 and worsening inequalities will fuel malnutrition for billions in Asia and the Pacific, including Afghanistan.

The report found that 1.9 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet, even before the COVID-19 outbreak and the damage it has since caused to economies and individual livelihoods.

The report also highlights the dire situation in Afghanistan, which has the highest prevalence of undernourished children in South Asian countries – double that of other countries. In Afghanistan, 5 out of 10 poor children show signs of irreversible chronic malnutrition, the report says.

The report says that Afghanistan has the highest undernourishment rate in South Asia, more than double compared with Pakistan, addign that Afghan children have the 4th highest stunting rate in Asia.

“We are seeing increases in number of children identified as wasted month by month,” said UNICEF Afghanistan Country Office Chief of Nutrition. “We estimate there will be just under one million children in Afghanistan severely wasted in the next 12 months which is 30% higher than last year. We attribute this to the effects of COVID-19 on poor families.”

The diet for children and mothers is very poor, the report says, adding that Afghanistan is the second worse out of 23 countries for diet quality where studies show that 6 out of 10 children between 6 months and 2 years of age had no fruit or vegetables in the last 24 hours and 7 out of 10 had no protein.

https://www.khaama.com/persian/