Nutrition for mothers and children

Article 25.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes that motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. Yet maternal and child undernutrition are still highly prevalent in most developing countries.

Suboptimum breastfeeding in the first six months of life, especially non-exclusive breastfeeding, results in 1.4 million child deaths each year and accounts for 10 percent of disease in children younger than 5 years globally. Maternal short stature and iron deficiency anaemia (both symptoms of poor nutrition) increase the risk a mother dying during delivery – these conditions cause at least 20 percent of maternal deaths worldwide.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is in a unique position to improve maternal and child nutrition through its Mother and Child Health and Nutrition Programme (MCHN) – over 80 percent of the WFP target population are women and children.

WFP-supported MCHN programmes are implemented in collaboration with government partners, local communities, non-governmental organisations and other international agencies. The programme comprises supplementary feeding as well as preventive health and nutrition education.

The need for community involvement

A key focus of WFP interventions is community involvement and support for improving the nutritional situation of mothers and children. To be sustainable, community-based interventions must build on traditional beliefs and care-giving activities, and extend these to the nutritional needs of mothers and children.

An example of this is the Mother and Baby Friendly Community Initiative in The Gambia, which builds on traditional knowledge and practices for ensuring nutrition. For example, food-based approaches, including community and household gardens, can be combined with preventive health and nutrition interventions, such as reducing the workloads of pregnant women, community support for breastfeeding and hygiene promotion. A crucial element is that nutrition interventions are delivered through trained Community Support Groups, which include both women and men, in each community.

Through this initiative and in collaboration with partners, the WFP can sustain the maximum impact in its mother and child health and nutrition interventions. Furthermore:

• It can contribute to breaking traditional gender barriers, for example the view that caring for children is the sole responsibility of women.
• It can bring communities together around a common goal of improving maternal and child nutrition for the benefit of society.
• In communities where the WFP also operates School Feeding programmes, there are opportunities to link the two and advocate the importance of nutrition throughout a person's lifecycle.

Isatou Jallow
Policy, Planning and Strategy Division, Office of the Executive Director, UN World Food Programme, Rome, Italy
isatou.jallow@wfp.org
T +39 06 65133642
F +39 06 65132897