As global conflicts and insecurity proliferate, widening the chasm of inequality, it is ever-more crucial to press for political action against malnutrition. A root cause of poverty and block on physical, mental and global development, malnutrition shockingly remains the biggest killer of children under five.
Committed to ensuring that the UK plays its full role in ending this tragedy, United Against Malnutrition & Hunger (UAMH) rolled up its sleeves and hit the party conferences with a clear message. Preventing and treating malnutrition will deliver a healthier, safer world. So, as Official Development Assistance (ODA) diminishes, while instability and chronic humanitarian needs soar, funding for nutrition must be prioritised.
First stop, Bournemouth to the Liberal Democrats conference and The Geopolitical Implications of Hunger, the panel event we co-hosted with the Liberal Democrats in International Development and The World Food Programme.
As Chair Edward Morello, MP for West Dorset, told the packed audience, “Solving global hunger is imperative to global stability.”
He was joined by Jonny Oates, UAMH CEO, Geraldine O’Callaghan, Director of London Office of the World Food Programme, and Roh Yakobi UAMH Expert Adviser, Malnutrition Advocate, and Political Analyst. Together they explored how deep cuts to ODA are fuelling hunger with consequences for European security.
The scenario is stark and the case for action persuasive. Without access to nutrition, the productivity of each person, community and country is held back. Entire economies are undermined and people seek a better life elsewhere. According to the World Food Programme, every 1% rise in food insecurity causes a 2% rise in migration.
The panel agreed that malnutrition has huge geopolitical significance, and the UK’s response to it should viewed as a strategic contribution to UK national security.
Liverpool, and the Labour Party Conference was the next stop on our pursuit of a world in which no child dies of malnutrition. We are not there yet, a heartbreak our newest Expert Adviser Roh Yakobi understands too well. As a boy in Afghanistan, he experienced the brutal Taliban blockade in which thousands of people starved to death, his baby brother included.
Roh spoke on From Grassroots to Global: Advancing Health Equity Together, the event hosted by Action for Global Health. Fellow panellists were Paul Marsden from the World Health Organisation, Jacqueline Bamfo, a maternal health expert from the Ghanaian Doctors and Dentists Association, Winifred Maduko, a youth activist and One Ambassador, and Adrian Lovett, One’s Executive Director.
Malnutrition profoundly affects health, reducing vaccine effectiveness, increasing the risk of infections and weakening immune systems. A malnourished child is 11 times more likely to die of an infectious disease such as pneumonia, and panellists warned that lack of funding for health systems and workers was hurting women and children most. Worldwide, a staggering one billion women and adolescent girls are malnourished, often because they eat least and last. As Roh Yakobi said, investment in nutrition is an effective female empowerment tool.
Finally, UAMH arrived in Manchester for From Hunger to Hypertension: Why Tackling Malnutrition is Key to Preventing Non-Communicable Diseases, the Conservative Party Conference event we co-hosted with Global Health Partnerships (formerly THET). It produced more insightful contributions about how nutrition is indispensable to good health.
Chaired by Sir Andrew Mitchell MP, Former Deputy Foreign Secretary and Minister for International Development, the line-up comprised UAMH’s Roh Yakobi, Margaret Caffrey, Technical Director Health Systems Strengthening at Global Health Partnerships, Dr Sorrell Burden from the University of Manchester, and Dr Lawrence Nnyanzi, Senior Lecturer in Research Methods at Teesside University.
While traditionally seen as distinct, malnutrition and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are increasingly recognised as linked. Undernutrition in childhood contributes to poor metabolic health later in life, and the global rise in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers is closely tied to food insecurity and diet quality.
Tackling malnutrition is foundational to preventing NCDs and reducing pressure on health systems, the group concurred, signposting collaboration between health, education, food, trade and development policies as the way to go.
The global political environment remains bleak but as the intensity of conference season ended, the UAMH team returned encouraged by many positive conversations with Parliamentarians across the political divides
As Parliament returns, we urge MPs and Peers to continue to raise their voices to advocate for the UK, once again, to play its role at the heart of global efforts to tackle malnutrition. There is not a moment to waste. Malnutrition is preventable and treatable, yet over two million children under five died because of it last year. The world knows what needs to be done; now we need the political commitment to do it. If we don’t find it, we will increasingly discover that a hungry world can never be healthy or secure.
