The Dominican Republic
World Health Organization (WHO): Infant and Child Nutrition.
To promote growth and improve child survival, child nutrition is key. Undernutrition is estimated to have caused 2.7 million child deaths a year. Infant and Child nutrition can vary from country to country. Many economically poor countries and their people don’t have the money to give a good nutrition to their children. In Africa, the child undernutrition is the highest out of any continent, due to the economic hardship.
The Dominican Republic is on its way to the world’s “good nutrition” target, but we still experience a malnutrition hardship facing its child population. In the Dominican Republic, 4.6% of all infants are exclusively breastfed. We also have a reputation for overweight babies, like many other Carribean, Latin American, and Central American countries. This is the way it is because of the way of life within our nation. Most women of reproductive age in the Dominican are either overweight and have been diagnosed with diabetes, or are underweight and fighting for any food they can find. Although this is a small problem in the country, solving the issue would be crucial so we can assure that our babies are healthy and happy.
Infant and child nutrition is a very big topic for our count as many of our babies are over or underweight. Within our nation, there is little to no middle class. Our people are either rich or poor. In the rich families babies or children are usually well nurtured, or overweight. In the families who do not have the economic resources to take care of a baby, that baby could be overweight or underweight.
In the committee, the Dominican Republic wishes to seek other countries’ points of view on the topic. One type of solution that we would like to see be included in the adopted resolution is that nutrition education be added to one’s country education system curriculum. In the past, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has advocated for children topics like this one by bringing some of the issues to not only local governments but also international organizations like the United Nations or the alliance of the Caribbean.
- Juan Pena
