Despite their promises some seven years ago, however, millions of children continue to suffer from severe malnutrition, say U.N. researchers specialising in children's health.

”There are nearly 20 million children who are severely, acutely malnourished,” according to a recent joint statement by the World Health Organisation, the World Food Programme, the U.N. Standing Committee on Nutrition and the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

Though gravely concerned about the number of children facing hunger and malnutrition, experts at all these agencies are optimistic about tackling the problem using a fresh and innovative approach.

”With the new community-based approach, we are going to decrease this number by half in the next five years,” Flora Sibanda-Mulder, UNICEF's senior advisor, told IPS.

The second is that malnourished children are vulnerable to a number of other diseases in the clinical setting due to their already weakened immune system.

Finally, the widely used fortified milk-powder products given out in hospitals must be mixed with water. If the water is contaminated, it can make the child even sicker.

Sibanda-Mulder and other experts are now advocating a product called Plumpy'nut, which is rich in protein, vitamins and minerals. It is made by Nutriset, a French company that specialises in producing food supplements for relief work.

If this new approach is combined with traditional, hospital-based treatment, there is a growing hope that the severe malnutrition affecting 20 million children can be significantly reduced by 2015, the deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

Sarah E. Ryan, a professor at the City University in New York who has done extensive research on malnutrition in Africa, told IPS that the new U.N. initiative ”shows a great deal of promise”.

”It recognises the centrality of targeting community members where they are,” she said.

Unlike milk formulas like F-75 and F-100, used in hospital-based treatment, Plumpy'nut does not require special hygienic conditions to be prepared, and does not need to be refrigerated, making it ideal for large-scale distribution. It has a sweet taste not unlike peanut butter.

The key issue now is producing and distributing enough to meet the needs of millions of malnourished children.

”In order to achieve this ambitious goal the programme needs a sufficient amount of resources,” said Stephen Jarrett, UNICEF's principal supply advisor.

He says that currently there is only one manufacturer, Nutriset, which also has some production facilities in Africa, notably Ethiopia, Niger, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.

Nutriset's production capacity is about 15,000 tonnes annually, plus about a thousand additional tonnes from its African plants.

Since each child requires at least 15 kgs of Plumpy'nut to reach normal weight, current production capacity can meet the needs of just one million children. Meanwhile, the 19 million others may not survive the wait.

”The priority is a product,” Jarrett said.

UNICEF says that they are hoping the private sector will to take the lead in building new plants, which cost about a million dollars each.

This is obviously not a small amount of money, especially for African entrepreneurs, but according to Jarrett, many foundations at the international and national level are interested in investing in this product.

And once constructed, the plants would have a built-in market and reliable buyers like UNICEF, he said.

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency