On Mother’s Day – a time when many celebrate their mothers, grandmothers and other loved ones with red roses, fuzzy slippers, and chocolate – give a gift instead that will save the lives of children. A simple vaccination or a basic medicine could avert silent tragedies that unfold every day – the deaths of children born into poverty.

Nearly 27,000 children still die every day from causes which are largely preventable and treatable like pneumonia, diarrhea, and complications during the first day to year of life. Malnutrition is an underlying factor in half of all of these deaths worldwide. The vast majority of child deaths occur in Africa and South Asia; sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of mortality with 50 percent of all deaths.

This situation is made even worse as rising global food prices now threaten over 35 million of the world’s poorest children - 10 percent under the age of 5 - putting them at even greater risk of malnutrition. Based on World Bank estimates, over the last three years, prices have risen more than 80 percent. Prices for rice, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, have jumped a staggering 141 percent since January. This increase has been driven by high income growth in emerging economies like China and India, the use of crops for biofuels, limited supply given increasing demand, low stocks, and some speculative investment.

Young children, who face life-long health problems due to malnourishment, along with pregnant and nursing mothers, are among the most vulnerable groups in poor countries. These problems range from weight loss, high susceptibility to illness and death from ailments like diarrhea and pneumonia, and permanent negative effects on physical and cognitive growth, from which children never recover. In terms of nutrition, the most critical window of time for children is from six months to two years of age. At six months, mothers typically begin to supplement breastfeeding with other foods. In some areas of the world, like sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, it may be difficult to meet a child’s nutritional needs either because food is too expensive or because it is not even available.

When food prices rise, this situation becomes even more desperate. Higher prices may cause poor people to limit their food consumption and shift to even worse diets (e.g., from bread to sorghum, a dark grain consumed by the world’s poorest people), thus damaging their health in both the short and the long term. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, at the household level, the poor spend 50 to 60 percent of their overall budget on food. For a household of five living on $1 per person per day, a 50 percent in food prices removes $1.50 from their $5 budget, and growing energy prices only add to this problem.

Tackling the growing worldwide hunger crisis – and its particularly devastating impact on mothers, newborns, and children – is critical. Addressing hunger has implications not only for the health and survival of populations but for the world’s long-term economic and social stability. Already the United Nations, the U.S. and other governments, the private sector, and civil society worldwide are taking steps to alleviate the crisis, including addressing and expanding existing shortfalls of food aid, increasing investment in agriculture (especially in agricultural science and technology and market access) to boost much needed supply, and enacting trade policy reforms.

Changing policy, utilizing best practices in public health, assuring clean water, sanitation, and nutrition for the world’s children can only be accomplished through enhanced coordination and accountability of child survival health programs. The Global Child Survival Act of 2007 will ensure that all aspects of government aid like food assistance, vaccination delivery, and basic health care services are better coordinated.

Today mark Mother’s Day with the best gift of all – life for the world’s children. Write your member of Congress and ask them to support the Global Child Survival Act. The legislation would streamline the delivery of antibiotics, vitamin A supplements, and vaccines while improving accountability and coordination. It would also provide funds to help save the lives of as many as two-thirds of all children who die around the world, many of them from malnutrition or conditions aggravated by undernourishment.

For more information:

•  Feeding Haiti (editorial)
Boston Globe

•  Rising Food Prices - Drivers and Implications for Development (pdf)
Chatham House

•  Global Food Crisis
Food for the Hungry

•  Rising Food Prices - What Should Be Done? (pdf)
International Food Policy Research Institute

•  Global Food Crisis
Mercy Corps

•  Malawi Food Programs Face Cash or Crop Dilemma (video)
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer

•  Stop the Hunger Crisis
ONE Campaign

•  Oxfam International Position on Food Prices (pdf)
Oxfam

•  Global Food Crisis
Save the Children

•  IYCN Brief
USAID Infant and Young Child Nutrition Project, implemented by PATH

•  Rising Food Prices Threaten Poverty Reduction
World Bank

•  Paying the price of hunger: the impact of malnutrition on women and children (pdf)
World Food Programme

•  A mother's anguish reflects desperation of hungry children and families
World Vision

Please note: Links provided above are public information and are intended as an educational resource only.
The US Coalition for Child Survival cannot verify information from these sites.