Committee: World Health Organization
Topic: Infantile and Child Malnutrition
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Malnutrition causes 45% of deaths each year for children under five, and every six seconds, a child will die of malnutrition. One in seven people on earth are hungry, yet two-thirds of the food in the world is wasted. Scientists estimate that by 2050, there will not be enough food to feed the global population. Ukraine believes that the best way to solve this is to have the UN take a fraction of its food budget to increase the production of Plumpy’Nut, which will then be sent to underdeveloped countries where children need it most.
Plumpy’Nut is a solution to help end child malnutrition. Costing less than a dollar to make, this paste helps treat severe acute malnutrition. Plumpy’Nut is a simple product made up of peanut butter, powdered milk, and powdered sugar, along with various vitamins and minerals. Plumpy’Nut is equivalent to one serving of milk and a multivitamin. By using this product, children all around the world can be cured of malnutrition and can be back to being kids. Plumpy’Nut has been tested in Niger, where the Human Development Index is 0.354, the lowest in the world. With a 30% literacy rate, many people earn less than a dollar a day. Most mothers are unable to produce enough milk. Powdered formula is not an option either, because they don’t have access to clean water. Most mothers there have watched at least one of their children die of malnutrition. With Plumpy’Nut, villages have seen fewer and fewer children dying from hunger.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that the ” provision of adequate nutritious foods” is necessary. In developing countries, 3.1 million children die from poor nutrition every year. Malnutrition accounts for approximately half of childhood deaths each year. If the UN would take a minuscule fraction of its annual food budget and spent it on Plumpy’Nut, the thousands of children around the world would be healthy.
- Libby Kurt
