Children have the right to ENOUGH nutritious food.

Having ENOUGH nutritious food is critical for a young child’s physical growth and brain development. The largest global hunger crisis of modern history is unfolding before our eyes, with over 25 million children currently at risk of starvation and 149 million stunted due to the lack of nutritious food. Hunger and malnutrition place a question mark on children’s right to life. They rob girls and boys of their potential and condemn them to a lifetime of poor health, the inability to get educated and increased exposure to violence – it is an inter-generational crisis.

Children in rural settings and poorer households, whose mothers received no formal education, are more
vulnerable to stunting and wasting, while children in urban areas and wealthier households are at higher risk of being overweight. The world is not acting quickly enough to save millions of children who are on the brink of starvation. This is a systemic failure and it needs systemic solutions. Success will mean feeding the hungry today and avoiding relapses of child hunger and malnutrition crises in the future.

This paper outlines World Vision Ireland’s policy position on addressing hunger and malnutrition. It is our response as a child-focused humanitarian, development and advocacy agency, and sets out our recommendations for increased action to respond to the global hunger crisis and support the world’s most vulnerable children, families and communities.