Food Insecurity in Iraq Persists: Children Suffer

뉴스 제공

2006-05-12 13:43

가

가 가 가 가

서울--(뉴스와이어)--지난 2005년 동안의 자료를 토대로 이라크 식량 상황이 불안하다는 내용의 자료를 이라크 정부, 관련 기구 등이 함께 조사한 내용을 담았습니다. 식량상황 불안은 어린이가 가장 많은 피해를 입습니다. 이라크 어린이의 33%가 영양실조이며, 9%는 극심한 상태입니다. 신체발육, 지적 성장 등에 적지 않은 영향을 미칩니다. 이로 인해 교육 부문에 가장 많은 악영향을 끼치고 있습니다.

* * *

Amman/Baghdad, 11 May 2006: Despite the laudable efforts of the Public Distribution System (PDS) of food baskets, many of Iraq’s poorer households are still food insecure, according to a Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis launched today, based on the most recent data from 2005.

The study was successfully conducted by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation/Central Organization for Statistics & Information Technology (COSIT) and the Ministry of Health/Nutrition Research Institute (NRI), supported by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It was sorely needed, both to answer questions arising from apparently conflicting reports on nutritional status and to support policy development/prioritization to deal with identified problem areas.

The survey was very comprehensive, covering 98 districts and 22,050 rural and urban households, and employed seven leading indicators - Stunting, Underweight, Wasting, % of Population who were Extremely Poor (spending less than US$15 per month), PDS ration Dependency Rate, Coping Strategy Index, and Income.

Roger Wright, UNICEF’s Special Representative for Iraq, lamented that children were confirmed as the major victims of food insecurity. “The chronic malnutrition rate of children in food insecure households was as high as 33 per cent or one out of every three children malnourished”, he stated. Chronic malnutrition affects the most vulnerable youngest children aged 12 months to 23 months most severely. “This can irreversibly hamper the young child’s optimal mental/cognitive development, not just their physical development”, he went on. Acute malnutrition was also of concern, with 9 percent of Iraqi children being acutely malnourished. The highest rates (12-13 per cent) were again found in children aged under 24 months.

Continuing food insecurity in Iraq cannot be attributed to any one factor, but stems from several causes, including the lingering effects of war and sanctions , plus the ongoing conflict/insecurity ; their protracted and complicated interactions have resulted in increased unemployment, illiteracy, weakened infrastructure -- power and water/sanitation in particular -- and the direct loss of wage-earners for many families. Iraq’s food insecurity is thus not simply due to lack of production of sufficient food nationally for the population, but more a failure to ensure access to sufficient food at the household level, the study suggests.

The PDS ration has represented by far the single most important food source in the diet and is still a major factor in stabilizing food security in Iraq, where 15 per cent of households are classified as Extremely Poor. Coping mechanisms which have had to be used by such households include consuming cheaper and poorer quality foodstuffs, reducing the number of daily meals and/or buying food on credit.

Educational levels have an impact on accessibility to food, with the more educated generally having greater ability to cope with difficult situations and a higher probability of employment. The study raises concerns about a growing drop-out rate among students under 15 years of age - 25 per cent of students under 15 who lived mostly in rural areas and were identified as extremely poor had dropped out of school, the main reasons for this being that households could no longer afford the expenses of schooling, that the schools were located too far away from home and that some children had to be sent to work to supplement household incomes.

유니세프한국위원회 개요
유니세프한국위원회는 한국에서 유니세프를 대표하는 기관(비영리법인)으로서 한국위원회의 주된 임무는 세계 어린이를 위해 국내에서 세계 어린이 현황과 유니세프 활동을 널리 알려 어린이돕기 기금을 조성하는 것입니다. 또한, 아동의 권리 홍보 및 모유수유 권장, 세계교육 등의 사업을 통해 어린이 권리를 신장하는 활동도 함께 펼쳐 나갑니다. 유니세프한국위원회가 국내에서 펼치는 모든 활동은 유니세프가 전세계적으로 펼치고 있는 어린이 구호활동을 지지하기 위한 것입니다.

웹사이트: http://www.unicef.or.kr