UNICEF: Fighting Hunger in Yemen a Priority

27/5/2012 -


Source: UNICEDF

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called on authorities to prioritize reducing malnutrition levels as Yemen's transition plan is carried out.

Yesterday, following the "Friends of Yemen" meeting in Saudi Arabia, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called on the international community to make combating malnutrition in the country a key priority.

Numbering roughly 13 million, children make up more than half of Yemen’s population. Many of these children are undernourished. Almost three-in-five have suffered stunting—retardation of their development. An estimated 43 per cent of children under the age of five are also moderately or severely underweight. Meanwhile, about one million under-fives are acutely malnourished.

Since early 2011, protesters in Yemen were moved by the Arab Spring uprisings in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia. Long-serving ruler, the former President Abdullah Saleh, agreed to cede power in November of last year, setting the stage for governance reforms. Saleh formally stepped down in February of this year.

 “The international community has to work with the Government of Yemen to make the right choices in its Transition Plan 2012-2014,” remarked the country’s UNICEF representative, Geert Cappelaere. “The leading priority must be the fight against malnutrition, especially as we head into the hunger and diarrhoea season in June,” she said in a news release by the agency.

Almost 35 per cent of people live below the national poverty line in Yemen, according to  World Bank data. The average per capita income is only $1,170, below the average for both the Middle East & North Africa region and lower-middle income countries.

Violence over the past year has endangered the lives and wellbeing of many Yemeni children.  Across the developing world, girls are the first to miss out on good meals and education when times are tough and household expenses must be curtailed. With as many as 2.5 million children out of school, girls are missing out the most here too.

Instability has even pushed child malnutrition beyond emergency threshold levels. Investments in food and nutrition, water and sanitation, hygiene and public health and social protection schemes can make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable and poverty-struck families.