… As a writer, I am drawn to childhood malnutrition — a subject so inherently sad and painful — because I believe there is hope. This hope is a result of progress made specifically in the 21rst century. With a new understanding of vitamins and minerals in the human body, we have seen a revolution in how we treat and prevent severe childhood malnutrition. Importantly, we now understand that ending childhood malnutrition will require a holistic approach that includes empowering women, good sanitation, and managing diseases like malaria. We also have proven strategies—cash transfers to the poor, school lunch programs, support for smallholder farmers—that have dramatically reduced childhood malnutrition in countries and states as diverse as Malawi, Vietnam, Brazil, and Maharashtra, India …
By Sharman Apt Russell
Sharman Apt Russell is the author of 'Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It' (Pantheon Books, 2021) and 'Hunger: An Unnatural History' (Basic Books, 2005). She teaches at Antioch University in Los Angeles and lives in the magical realism of the American Southwest. www.sharmanaptrussell.com
The Strategy of Hope
It’s a truism that hope generates action. Without hope, we can reasonably say, “Why bother?” With hope, we can reasonably say, “Let’s try.”
A quarter of the world’s children are stunted physically and mentally because of a lack of food or nutrients in their first years of life. Most of these children do not die but suffer from a lifetime of diminished potential. Most live in peaceful countries: they are not the suffering images we see in war and conflict. Many, but not all, live in extreme poverty.
As a writer, I am drawn to childhood malnutrition—a subject so inherently sad and painful—because I believe there is hope. This hope is a result of progress made specifically in the 21rst century. With a new understanding of vitamins and minerals in the human body, we have seen a revolution in how we treat and prevent severe childhood malnutrition. Importantly, we now understand that ending childhood malnutrition will require a holistic approach that includes empowering women, good sanitation, and managing diseases like malaria. We also have proven strategies—cash transfers to the poor, school lunch programs, support for smallholder farmers—that have dramatically reduced childhood malnutrition in countries and states as diverse as Malawi, Vietnam, Brazil, and Maharashtra, India.
We have exhaustively analyzed the costs and benefits. We know how much reducing anemia in women of reproductive age will increase productivity. We know that undernourished children cost some countries as much as 16 percent of their GDP. Over and over, economists tell us that spending money on good nutrition is one of society’s best investments.
Most recently, at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, researchers estimated that an additional $33 billion a year spent on improving food systems for the next ten years could eradicate almost all hunger that is not caused by civil violence and war. Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, posted the extraordinary statement. “For the first time, ending hunger is within the world’s grasp.”
Yes, the pandemic, as well as climate change, has increased world hunger. But the pandemic has also taught us the relative ease and importance of spending money on public health.
Moreover, $33 billion a year looks relatively small against the healthy profits made by some corporations in the last few years. Corporations who contribute to ending childhood hunger would immediately benefit by attracting investors interested in social responsibility. Those companies would also attract new and ambitious employees with the same interest.
If all this seems like self-interest, good. The idea that self-interest is aligned with ending childhood malnutrition makes me even more hopeful.
The very act of hope is in our self-interest. Because “Why bother?” is such a joyless response. If hope produces action, action produces its own satisfying energy. Psychologically, we are drawn to the energy of “Let’s try.”
The recent invasion of the Ukraine by Russia is a terrible reminder of how vulnerable we are to the worst of human impulses and behavior. But even as we struggle collectively through this new crisis, even as we work to mitigate climate change, we can simultaneously achieve the goal of ending the majority of child hunger in the world.
A quarter of the world’s next generation could then learn better in school, be more productive at work, engage more actively in solving our many social problems, and live and love more fully.
That hopefulness is not naïve. It’s strategic.