Country:Brazil
Committee:WHO
Topic:Infant and Child Nutrition
Delegate:Harrison Powell
School: Williamston High School
Children lacking natural healthy nutrition has been declining in recent years. In some studies child obesity and disproportionate Body mass index (BMI) has been linked to child neglect. Children with a BMI of 85% or over have increased 23% among preschoolers, 34% among elementary students, and 34% among adolescents (US Database). The first act to directly combat child nutrition was the Child Nutrition Act in the US passed by Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1981 the WHO accepted the International Code of Breastmilk Substitutes. Child nutrition neglect needs to be stopped because it can cause life long disparities. Lack of nutrition has been linked to hypertension, asthma, musculoskeletal problems and sleep disorders. It is also contributed to type II diabetes, depression and social stigmatization.
An innovative and fairly recent treaty passed by the UN is the Universal Health Coverage treaty (UHC). Multiple countries including Brazil have started taking action towards the UHC’s goal. Goals the UHC ask for is too make healthcare more affordable and easier access to medical attention in areas where there is not any. Brazil has passed multiple policy acts to reduce poverty which directly affects child care and nutrition. Brazil passed the Income Transfer Programme (ITP) in the late 90’s. The ITP made sure that at the end of every month poor families were given a certain amount of money to put them over the poverty line. It also made sure that women and children went to primary health centres and that older children attended school regularly. Brazil is now a very successful country and produces the 4th highest GDP overall in South America. Currently Brazil’s ITP is recognized as one of the most advanced strategies to help a population out of poverty and child malnutrition is at an all time low of 6% of children are stunted due to lack of nutrition.
The country of Brazil plans to keep following their ITP policy and putting it forward to the international scale and also meeting the quota of the Universal Health Care plan. Brazil believes that stopping child malnutrition is exceptionally important and believes the UN should be able to intervene on individual countries to stop child malnutrition. The country of Brazil believes all countries will join them to stop the fight against child malnutrition.
- Harrison Powell
