A key part of Bread for the World’s mission to end hunger is ending malnutrition and poor nutrition, sometimes known as “hidden” hunger.
Food security requires not only that people have access to enough calories, but that they can consistently meet the nutritional requirements for an active life through affordable, accessible, and healthier diets.
Malnutrition is particularly dangerous for children, who require the right nutrients at the right time to grow and develop properly. Nearly half of all deaths among children under 5 are due to malnutrition, often because malnourished children are more likely to die from illnesses that healthy children almost always survive.
In 2022, 193 million children experienced some form of malnutrition, and 56 percent of children were deficient in at least three key micronutrients. For children in many parts of the world, weather extremes and changing environments are making it more difficult for families to meet their nutritional needs.
For example, evidence shows that environmental shifts such as rainfall variability and higher temperatures correlate with adverse health and nutrition outcomes among newborns and older children. For rural and small-scale farming communities that face heightened climate risks, their ability to produce nutritious food or earn enough money to afford a nutritious diet is jeopardized.
In a study conducted on the impact of climate change on key micronutrient availability, the essential micronutrients identified as threatened by climate change include folate, vitamin B12, iron, vitamin A, and calcium. These nutrients are important for both children and pregnant women. Nearly 50 countries face a high risk of micronutrient insufficiency linked to climate change.
The study includes additional details on Zambia, one of the countries at highest risk of micronutrient deficiencies in the coming years. Although this report warns of future challenges, many children in Zambia are already enduring the consequences of extreme environmental changes on their health.
This includes eight-month-old Hasan. Hasan was born healthy in Northern Zambia’s Zambezi District, but due to food shortages exacerbated by a months-long drought, he quickly became frail from malnutrition. He was dehydrated to the point that he could not produce tears when he cried. His mother, Minerva, knew that Hasan’s health was deteriorating. She carried him for more than three hours to reach a hospital that could help. Once provided with Ready to Eat Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs), a highly nutritious peanut-butter-like paste, Hasan recovered from malnutrition.
While Hasan’s story is one of improvement thanks to emergency food assistance, more sustainable solutions are needed to prevent hunger, malnutrition, and suffering. Building long-term resilience to climate shocks can help vulnerable communities withstand the harmful effects of extreme weather shocks such as prolonged drought.
Resilience building can take many forms, such as scaling up climate-smart and diversified agricultural practices, facilitating water management and irrigation projects, or providing better training and market opportunities for rural smallholder farmers.
To ensure that global and national policy frameworks can protect child nutrition and family health in a changing environment, decision-makers everywhere need to safeguard nutrition security from climate shocks.
Policies that fund emergency food assistance and resilience-building activities for smallholder farmers and food systems can help in the immediate term. More publicly-funded research on the impacts of climate change on nutrition security is still needed. It is a worthwhile investment that can lead to better and safer policy and program responses.
Isabel Vander Molen is a climate advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.
