The UN World Food Programme (WFP) marked the World Food Day by highlighting the power of nutrition to transform individuals, societies and economies and the need to make it central to all development efforts.
WFP Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin
“Undernourished girls and boys face barriers in health, in school performance and later, in the workplace, which limit their human potential and their capacity to contribute to the societies in which they live,” said WFP Executive Director, Ertharin Cousin in a statement released.
“Prioritising nutrition today is an investment in our collective global future. The investment must involve food, agriculture, health and education systems,” she said.
Locally, the day was marked at national level in Manyara Region. Some 842 million people – more than one in eight people in the world – suffer from chronic hunger.
Yet even more – around two billion people – lack the vitamins and minerals needed to live healthy lives.
If the global community invested 1.2 billion US dollars per year for five years on reducing micronutrient deficiencies, the benefits in better health, fewer child deaths and increased future earnings would generate gains worth 15.3 billion US dollars.
“Here in Tanzania, addressing under nutrition is a key element in both our programme activities and our policy work,” said WFP Tanzania Country Director, Mr Richard Ragan.
Source Tanzania Daily News
