Sport binds people together in a collective celebration of the efforts and achievements of powerful, healthy athletes at the top of their game.
Here at United Against Malnutrition & Hunger (UAMH) we know that when leaders work together with determination, impressive change can happen, and that sport has a key role to play in improving the world.
So, on World Food Day 16 October, we united with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to host a Parliamentary roundtable and draw much-needed attention to the inequity of global maternal nutrition.
Today, despite having higher and additional nutritional needs than men and boys, one billion women and adolescent girls suffer from malnutrition worldwide. Typically eating last and least, gender discrimination makes them more vulnerable to this entirely preventable condition.
The consequences are impossible to exaggerate. Adolescent girls need nutritious diets to establish reserves for childbearing. Malnourished women lacking iodine, iron, folate, calcium, and zinc are at higher risk of antenatal complications such as pre-eclampsia and haemorrhage. They are more likely to die in labour or have a stillborn child.
Malnourished mothers are at far higher risk of having malnourished children, and malnutrition is the cause of nearly half of all deaths of children under five.
It does not end there. Infant survivors can be stunted, a condition that damages their physical and cognitive development reducing their learning and earning potential and leading to lifelong disadvantages that ricochet for generations.
That injustice motivated our guest speaker, former British tennis champion Johanna Konta, to attend the Parliamentary roundtable. Currently expecting her second child, Johanna explained how her sporting success relied on the solid basis of a good diet, but that nutrition took on a different importance in her pregnancies.
“Every child deserves an equal opportunity to reach their full potential. Of all the pregnant women in the world, I am one of the lucky ones,” she said.
Former International Development Minister Baroness Featherstone opened the discussion. Other speakers included former Deputy Foreign Secretary and now shadow Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP and UAMH CEO Jonny Oates.
There were lively contributions including from Steve Race, Labour MP for Exeter, Lord Bruce of Bennachie, Baroness Sugg, Terri Sarch from the FCDO, Amanda Horton-Mastin from the Wimbledon Foundation, Dianne Hayes from the WTA Foundation, Joanne Driels from the Gates Foundation, and Gemma Tumelty from the Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF), all emphasising their commitment to championing the cause.
Nutrition is foundational to development. Indeed, Bill Gates is on record as saying: “I often get asked what I would choose if I could only solve one problem. My answer is always malnutrition.” This is because tackling malnutrition is the key to unlocking progress across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Earlier this year the WTA Foundation launched the Global Women’s Health Fund as part of their ‘Women Change the Game’ campaign. Mobilising private and public sector leaders, philanthropists, and the public, the fund is a response to the unacceptable nutrition gap. Despite rising global hunger, affecting 783 million people mostly women and girls, less than 1% of global foreign aid is spent on nutrition.
The initiative aims to support at least one million women worldwide in its first year, with money raised directed towards the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund.
In this first year, the focus is on the delivery of antenatal MMS (multiple micronutrient supplementation), to women in lower-income countries. Containing fifteen essential vitamins and minerals, MMS can prevent malnutrition from passing to their babies. Evidence shows this highly cost-effective treatment can reduce infant death by 29%.
As the global hunger and nutrition crisis grows, driven by the grim triumvirate of conflict, climate change, and the cost of living, attendees agreed the UK Government should prioritise nutrition to advance sustainable development and combat gender inequality.
They can do so confident that history proves remarkable success is possible. Between 1990 and 2015, the UK was at the heart of international efforts that resulted in the proportion of people suffering from severe hunger reducing by almost half.
Women’s empowerment is critical to the elimination of global malnutrition. Supporting it is in our interest to bring forward a fairer, safer more prosperous future.
As Johanna Konta compellingly put it: “When we champion each other, we all truly win.”
