WASHINGTON – COVID-19 has increased the amount of money needed for nutrition-specific interventions to meet global child nutrition goals by more than $ 1 billion a year, said Meera Shekar, PhD, Global Lead for Nutrition at the World Bank.
She led a study in 2017 that found $ 7 billion annually, or about $ 10 per child, is required for an affordable package of nutrition-specific interventions, including for anemia in women and breastfeeding. According to a study with Dr. Shekar, which was published in Nature Food on July 19, 2021, now requires an additional $ 1.2 billion per year.
“That seems like a lot of money, but globally it really isn’t,” said Dr. Shekar on October 7th in a virtual event organized by the Washington-based International Food Information Council to celebrate International Girls’ Day.
She said that over $ 700 billion a year is spent on agriculture-related subsidies worldwide.
The study in Nature Food gave a moderate outlook that COVID-19 will play a role in an additional 168,000 deaths of children under 5 by 2022. The optimistic outlook was an additional 47,000 deaths, while the pessimistic outlook was an additional 283,000 deaths.
Disruptions in the supply chain prevent food from reaching those in need. Dr. Shekar said she saw the news of ships waiting outside of California ports due to supply chain bottlenecks.
“We have seen tremendous disruptions in supply chains around the world,” she said.
The disruptions lead to food waste.
“A lot of food is perishable,” said Dr. Shekar. “Healthier foods in particular are much more perishable. This means that the cost of fruit and vegetables has increased much more than that of other foods. “
Consumers then turn to less expensive – and less nutritious – foods, which means that the number of overweight and obese consumers could increase.
Approximately 2 billion adults worldwide are overweight or obese, said Dr. Shekar. While some associate obesity with the rich, it affects poor people too, she said. According to a study Dr. Shekar, which was published in Obesity Reviews on August 26, 2020, indicates that more than 70% of the overweight or obese worldwide are from low- or middle-income countries. Almost all low- and middle-income countries have problems with both consumer obesity and insufficiently nutritious food, she said.
“And sometimes in the same household, which seems surprising, but it’s actually true,” she said.
Still, Dr. Shekar, she remains optimistic about overcoming the problems related to COVID-19.
“One of the amazing things we’ve seen around the world is how adaptable we are as humans,” she said, citing the IFIC virtual event as an example.
“When service delivery was initially interrupted around the world, people came up with alternative ways to deliver these services,” said Dr. Shekar. “Each country adapted to the context in which it was located. I’ve seen many, many countries where health workers use technology to convey healthy eating messages, to collect data without actually going there and exposing themselves to the virus. So there are many, many opportunities that we saw positively. “
