The President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, and the Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of WFP, Pedro Medrano Rojas, has commended the IDB Governors for Central America and the Dominican Republic for committing to eradicating chronic child malnutrition in their respective countries.

The IDB governors of the eight countries—senior finance ministry officials in their respective governments—yesterday signed an agreement for an initiative to “assign top priority to child malnutrition in their poverty reduction strategies and step up measures to eradicate chronic child malnutrition in the region.”

The document was also signed by the IDB and WFP in support of the initiative.

“Chronic child malnutrition is unacceptable on ethical and humanitarian grounds, but also for social, economic and political reasons," said Moreno.

“Food, nutrition and health are basic human rights, without which there is little likelihood of total inclusion in society. But in addition to the high individual and collective cost of malnutrition in terms of human lives, schooling and productivity, inequity and poverty are a threat to democratic governance and peace," he said.

This initiative is the first one to give top priority to combating chronic child malnutrition in the fight against poverty. It is also the first time a regional group of finance ministry officials agreed on specific joint measures for nutrition.

“This unprecedented initiative finally gives us a historic opportunity to address the poverty that afflicts millions of people in the region, particularly poverty among the one fourth of children under the age of five in Central America and the Dominican Republic suffering from chronic malnutrition (close to 1.7 million),” said Medrano of the WFP.

“The unfortunate fact of the matter is that chronic child malnutrition has not only caused unnecessary suffering for millions of children, but has also stymied economic development in the region,” stressed Medrano.

Horizontal cooperation

The joint announcement by the Governors calls on the countries to support the initiative “by facilitating development of their 10-year programmes to eradicate child malnutrition, consisting of affordable activities that have proven effective, by allocating the necessary resources.”

It also calls on governments to provide “horizontal” cooperation in emergency situations, regularly exchange standardised technical, economic and epidemiological information, and carry out joint projects for research, technical cooperation and nutrition training.

A preliminary study conducted by the WFP and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in the seven Central American countries found that the average cost of chronic child malnutrition in 2004 was US$6.6 billion, or 6.4 percent of gross national product in the region.

Trevor Rowe
WFP/Latin America
and the Caribbean
Tel. +507-3173974
Mob. +507-6674-2601
trevor.rowe@wfp.org

Alejandro Chicheri
WFP/Latin America
and the Caribbean
Tel. +507 3173900
Mob. +507-6675-0617
alejandro.chicheri
@wfp.org

Brenda Barton
Deputy Director
Communications
WFP/Rome
Tel. +39-06-65132602
Cell. +39-3472582217
(ISDN line available
brenda.barton@wfp.org

Gregory Barrow
WFP/London
Tel. +44-20-72409001
Cell. +44-7968-008474
gregory.barrow@wfp.org

Simon Pluess
WFP/Geneva
Tel. +41-22-9178581
Cell. +41-797743821
simon.pleuss@wfp.org

Jennifer Parmelee
WFP/Washington
Tel. +1-202-6530010
Ext. 1149
Mob. +1-202-4223383
jennifer.parmelee
@wfp.org