Forskere er nået frem til, at lande med succes i kampen mod underernæring, alle har haft lydhøre politikere i spidsen
LONDON, 17 October 2011 (IRIN) – Malnutrition is a huge problem worldwide, especially the kind of everyday, year-round hunger that stunts (hindrer) children’s growth and means they never reach their full physical or intellectual potential.
But rates are declining, and in some countries the numbers are falling fast. In Brazil, for instance, where 30 years ago underweight and wasted children were common in the poorer regions and lower income groups, these problems have almost been eradicated.
Care and Action Contre le Faim, together with researchers from the Oakland Institute in the US, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK and Spain’s Tripode Proyectos, have studied national success stories in a bid to tease out the factors behind the improvements.
Political policy turned out to be a common thread (den røde tråd). The principal factor in reducing malnutrition was not farming or food aid, but political commitment.
Andres Mejia Acosta of IDS worked on what he calls “the Peruvian Surprise”. After 10 years of very little progress, malnutrition rates plummeted post-2006.
– Our first reaction was that this should be an income effect; there was a very large mining boom, the product of the commodities bonanza, says Mejia Acosta
But there was very little correlation between the regions that had benefited most from the boom and the ones that had most reduced malnutrition.
– It turns out we are discovering that it came from policy and political interventions; in the case of Peru, a nationwide poverty reduction strategy and a conditional cash transfer programme… The only thing we appear to find of relevance associated with reduced malnutrition is poverty reduction, Acosta notes.
In Peru, President Alan Garcia was elected in 2006 after signing a “5x5x5” pledge to reduce malnutrition in children under five years old by 5 percent over the next five years.
Once in office he raised the target to 9 percent and set a 100-day plan of action. The programme was run out of the office of the president, as are similar programmes in Brazil and Malawi.
Building leadership
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