May 22, 2008
Pushed by climate change, malnutrition 'Worse than many regions in Africa'
Church World Service is providing nutrition assistance, sustainable agriculture solutions
JAKARTA -- Against the backdrop of a rapidly worsening world food crisis, more than 91 percent of households in Indonesia's West Timor region are suffering hunger and alarming levels of malnutrition because of inadequate access to food, according to a new report issued today by global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS).
In four West Timor districts surveyed, CWS reports about 50 percent of infants and young children are moderately and/or severely underweight--significantly higher than in African countries overall, where 21.9 percent of small children are underweight, according to a January report in The Lancet.*
Julia Suryantan, coordinator of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit for Church World Service Indonesia, says CWS is urging immediate world attention to the crisis to prevent deaths among small children and to lessen permanent developmental damage to children under age five.
The West Timor districts surveyed in the report included Kupang, Timur Tengah Selatan (TTS), Timur Tengah Utara (TTU) and Belu, which have a combined population of 1.5 million. The survey is a collaboration of CWS Indonesia, CARE and Helen Keller International and was supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNICEF. The group surveyed mothers and infants and children under age five, as a barometer of the magnitude of nutrition, health and food security problems across West Timor's population.
Food crisis driven by climate change
In the face of a global food crisis that many say is primarily market-derived, West Timor is a microcosm of another man-made cause of food insecurity: climate change. Crops of family farmers in the region have suffered the devastating effects of global warming's unpredictable weather patterns for over a decade.
"Due to continued poor food production from season to season and due to poverty, households just don't have adequate access to food in either quantity or nutritional quality," says Church World Service Deputy Director of Programs Maurice Bloem, who until this year was country director of CWS Indonesia for the past eight years.
"In the survey, among under-five age children, we found a very high prevalence of wasting and stunting**--signs of acute and chronic malnutrition," says Bloem.
The survey found:
13.1 percent overall of under-five aged children are suffering acute malnutrition, as evidenced in wasting,* indicating a critical emergency food insecurity situation.
61.1 percent overall of children from birth to age 59 months are suffering chronic malnutrition, as evidenced in stunting.*
58.4 percent of children three to 59 months are suffering iron deficiency anemia, with the rate rising to more than 80 percent among those aged three to 23 months.
By comparison, the world Health Organization estimates that about 42 percent of preschool children across all developing countries suffer from anemia.
More than half of West Timor's children from birth to 59 months are underweight (47.8 percent overall across the districts surveyed, to as high as 50.2 percent in TTS district).
24 percent of non-pregnant mothers are experiencing thinness--high by WHO criteria and indicative of food insecurity--and 35.8 percent overall are experiencing anemia. Mothers who are undernourished before and during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to low-birth weight infants and are less able to care for their children or participate in income-generating activities.
CWS's Bloem says the survey also found a high degree of infectious diseases, particularly diarrhea caused by poor hygiene, water and sanitation, and acute respiratory infection among small children, as a result of poor hygiene and low immune system.
For its part, the Indonesian government, through its national health system, has established nationwide community-sponsored sub-village health service posts or posyandu to provide basic elements of monthly maternal and child health care such as growth monitoring, immunization, maternal health care and family planning, in an effort reduce infant and mother sickness and deaths.
The government has reported a 34 percent reduction in deaths among children who received Vitamin A supplements under an initiative that provides the capsules to 80 percent of Indonesian children ages six to 59 months of age.
But, says CWS's Bloem, "Other solutions are needed as well, to respond to the current food security and malnutrition crisis and prevent future environmentally-provoked food deficits." The CWS survey recommends that the Indonesian government endorse and expand use of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) as part of malnutrition case management in the country and urges dietary diversification, targeted food assistance, and more use of micronutrient supplements to decrease malnutrition.
Actions already underway and proposed for speeding up include collaborative efforts between the Indonesian government, NGOs, and community leaders, ranging from expanded nutritional interventions to sustainable agriculture methods and crop diversification designed to address the challenges.
In response to the situation in his district, Rafael Aploegi, District Development Planning Board in Timor Tengah Selatan, said, "To have a comprehensive solution, the support of all parties including the international community is needed. So far there has been support from the international community, and I thank you for that. However, with the existing conditions, overall long term sustainable assistance is required, aside from urgent short term assistance to prevent children mortality."
U.S.-based Heinz Foundation, CWS collaborating on nutrient supplement program
CWS also announced today it is starting collaboration with the H. J. Heinz Company Foundation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for provision of micronutrient supplements.
As reflected in programs that CWS already is supporting in West Timor, Bloem says, "We're urging broader and immediate support from donors and world bodies to establish income generating activities for poor households, food or cash for work initiatives, and to help provide safe drinking water."
CWS now supports sustainable agriculture programs, education and training in the region, such as seed solutions specific to the locale, small scale irrigation, and improved drainage to help family farmers institute growing methods that deliver rapid results and mitigate now-unpredictable, prolonged droughts.
CWS Indonesia's work in West Timor, which began in 2000, includes emergency assistance for refugees and internally displaced persons and nutrition and agriculture programs in several sub-districts.
In past years CWS received relatively short-term funding but now is looking for the longer-term funding necessary to address West Timor's acute and chronic malnutrition issues and to continue the agency's sustainable agriculture programs.
'We rang, no one answered'
"We rang the emergency bell early in the summer of 2006, but nobody answered or seemed to be willing to get into next gear then," says Bloem. At that time, Church World Service called for urgent action to address the West Timor situation, including strengthening of existing health and nutrition programs and re-establishing a nutrition and health surveillance system to monitor vulnerable regions of Indonesia.
An executive summary of the survey is available at: www.cwsindonesia.or.id/page/sasando/doc/2008-05-09_executivesum.pdf
Church World Service is a humanitarian agency providing emergency relief and recovery, sustainable development, human rights advocacy, and refugee resettlement and protection services worldwide. The agency is funded by public donations, grants and by 35 member denominations in the U.S.
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* The Lancet, www.thelancet.com, Vol. 371, January 19, 2008, p. 245, "Maternal and Child Undernutrition 1: global and regional exposures and health consequences," "Childhood underweight, stunting, and wasting"
** Stunting is the result of extended periods of inadequate food and refers to the failure to reach one's biological potential for growth. Wasting, or acute malnutrition, indicates significant recent or current weight loss and is measured in terms of weight for height. Wasting typically reflects nutritional deprivation resulting from temporary but extreme circumstances such as famine or illness.
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Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
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