The Samoa government must take the lead in upholding every child’s right to food and nutrition.
That is a recommendation in a new report on child nutrition by the United Nations.
The report titled “Fed to Fail?” highlighted the international dietary crisis of early life and was released by the United Nations Children’s Fund on September.
“Governments, parliaments and development partners must position young children’s diets as a national development priority, and include commensurate financial resources in their budgets and investments,” stated the report.
“Policies, legislation, and programmes across the food, health and social protection systems must be coherent, given the shared roles of these three systems in improving young children’s diets.
“Coordination is essential to identify and implement mutually reinforcing policy and programme actions.”
“They must also invest in research to identify the factors, processes and innovations that enable multi-system action to secure nutritious, safe, affordable, desirable and sustainable diets for young children. Learning from failed experiences is as important as learning from success.”
The report also warned that rising poverty, inequality, conflict, climate-related disasters, and health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are contributing to an ongoing nutrition crisis among young children that shows no sign of slowing down.
However, the report revealed together with national civil society, development partners and the private sector, they must mobilise the policies, resources and actors of three systems: food, health and social protection.