The Joining Forces Alliance for All Children has warned that millions of children are at risk of dying if immediate action is not taken to arrest the raging global hunger crisis.
The alliance, which includes Save the Children International, Plan International, and the ChildFund Alliance, says the world is facing a hunger and nutrition crisis of unprecedented scale as one child is pushed into severe malnutrition every minute.
Other members of the group are SOS Children’s Villages, Terres de Hommes, and World Vision International (WVI).
In a statement to Development Diaries, the group noted that eight million children are at risk of death in 15 crisis-affected countries.
‘Globally, almost 50 million people are living in emergency or catastrophic levels of acute hunger’, the statement read.
‘The impact of such sheer volumes of people experiencing extreme hunger will have devastating and lifelong impacts on children’s rights to health, nutrition, education, protection and survival if we don’t act now’.
The number of people facing acute food insecurity has more than doubled from 135 million in 2019 to 276 million, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
At least 45 million children globally are now suffering from wasting, with the United Nations (UN) warning that 350,000 children could die in Somalia alone this summer from the hunger crisis the country is experiencing.
‘The hunger and nutrition crisis is already having profound consequences for children including, threatening child survival and protection and increasing the risk of severe and acute malnutrition’, the statement added.
‘Children are at heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse due to dropping out of school, forced labour, recruitment and use by armed forces or armed groups and family separation.
‘Children without parental care are especially vulnerable to food insecurity and its multiple effects. Girls are at particular risk of early and forced marriage, early pregnancy, school drop-out, sexual exploitation and abuse.
‘When food is scarce, girls and women often eat less and last. The rights and needs of children must be prioritised in the response to this crisis.
‘We cannot continue with a business-as-usual approach. The response must be grounded in children’s needs and aspirations, and empower young people as agents of change’.
The group called on governments and donors to act urgently to prevent massive loss of lives.
Photo source: UNICEF Ethiopia
