The number of pregnant women and girls suffering from malnutrition has increased by 25% in the past two years, the UN children’s agency Unicef said.
The world’s poorest regions, such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, are most affected, the report found.
Unicef estimates that more than one billion women and girls worldwide are malnourished.
He said recent crises including war and Covid have made it increasingly difficult to find the food he needs.
Unicef is calling on the international community to make food security a priority, including supporting failing nutrition programs.
He emphasized the impact of malnutrition on children’s health.
A Unicef report found that one billion malnourished women and adolescent girls are “underweight and short” as a result, according to an analysis of data on women in many countries of the world.
It was also found that he suffered from deficiency of essential micronutrients as well as anemia.
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa “remain at the center of the nutrition crisis among girls and adolescent women”, the report said.
It was found that 68% of women and girls there are underweight, and 60% suffer from anemia.
“Inadequate nutrition throughout girls’ and women’s lives can lead to weakened immunity, poor cognitive development, and increased risk of life-threatening complications – including during pregnancy and childbirth,” Unicef said.
Malnutrition can also have “dangerous and irreversible consequences for the survival, growth, learning, and future earning capacity of their children”, he added.
“Globally, 51 million children under the age of two are stunted. We estimate that about half of these children become stunted during pregnancy and the first six months of life, when children are most dependent on their mothers for nutrition,” he said.
Unicef estimates that between 2020 and 2022, the number of pregnant or lactating women suffering from acute malnutrition will increase from 5.5 to 6.9 million in 12 countries considered to be experiencing a food crisis.
These are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad and Yemen.
“Without urgent action from the international community, the consequences could last for generations,” Unicef chief executive Catherine Russell said.
“To prevent malnutrition in children, we must also address malnutrition in adolescent girls and women,” he added.
Unicef called for mandatory legal measures to “develop large-scale food fortification of regularly consumed foods such as flour, cooking oil and salt” to reduce micronutrient deficiencies and anemia in girls and women.
Source: BBC
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