The story the media wishes us to believe as that the British involvement in the Afghan war was a mission for good. “We” brought progress for the well-being of the ordinary person. The British worker needs to be re-assured that all the money spent and the lives given made it all worth it.
Afghanistan has been the world's leading recipient of development assistance as a percentage of its national income, with US$6.2 billion in 2012 alone. Yet that spending has focused on governance and security.
The most recent National Nutrition Survey - the first in the country since 2004 - released late last year, showed that over 40 percent of Afghan children under the age of five suffered from permanent stunting as a result of malnutrition, while 9.5 percent of children suffered from wasting.
The number of children with severe acute malnutrition had more than tripled from 98,900 in 2003 to 362,317, while the estimated number of pregnant and lactating women requiring nutrition interventions had nearly doubled to 246,283. Acute malnutrition typically kills more quickly than chronic malnutrition, which is the world's leading cause of preventable mental disability.
Under the country's Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) healthcare system, international NGOs act as contractors to take on the basic provision of health services in a given district. As the Afghan government has faced financial cutbacks the BPHS budget has decreased, undermining malnutrition outreach programmes. In one province, the monthly budget per patient for all services dropped from 7 euros up to 2013 to 4.7 euros per patient per year in 2014, according to a report from ACF.
"The contract has a set amount of money per patient and the nutrition amount is too small to be useful as it doesn't allow for any outreach work to take place," Mark Bowden, the UN Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and the Humanitarian Coordinator for the country. "So essentially nutrition has been ignored within the health system."
"Poverty is the key issue here. Poverty and ignorance - it can be a vicious cycle," said Homayoun Zaheer, head of the Jalalabad hospital.
Franck Abeille, country director at Action Against Hunger (known by its French acronym ACF) said "When you meet donors they say: 'one year is perfect, let's move forward.' When you suggest three or four years they say: 'I am not sure we can find the funds.' So next year we come back with the same problem."
Claude Jibidar, country director at the World Food Programme, said that one route he was pushing for is to fortify wheat - the staple of the Afghan diet - potentially with government subsidies. "A lot of the micronutrient deficiencies would be immediately dealt with," Jibidar said. "You fortify with a pack of minerals and vitamins dealing with anaemia, iron, vitamin A and vitamin D deficiencies." "People say it has an effect on the price - I am told it would cost about $4-5 dollars additionally per kilo. Even if it is 10 times that the benefit is worth it," he added.Yet such a scheme, while potentially making older Afghans healthier, would only have a limited impact on the youngest.
From here
Afghanistan has been the world's leading recipient of development assistance as a percentage of its national income, with US$6.2 billion in 2012 alone. Yet that spending has focused on governance and security.
The most recent National Nutrition Survey - the first in the country since 2004 - released late last year, showed that over 40 percent of Afghan children under the age of five suffered from permanent stunting as a result of malnutrition, while 9.5 percent of children suffered from wasting.
The number of children with severe acute malnutrition had more than tripled from 98,900 in 2003 to 362,317, while the estimated number of pregnant and lactating women requiring nutrition interventions had nearly doubled to 246,283. Acute malnutrition typically kills more quickly than chronic malnutrition, which is the world's leading cause of preventable mental disability.
Under the country's Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) healthcare system, international NGOs act as contractors to take on the basic provision of health services in a given district. As the Afghan government has faced financial cutbacks the BPHS budget has decreased, undermining malnutrition outreach programmes. In one province, the monthly budget per patient for all services dropped from 7 euros up to 2013 to 4.7 euros per patient per year in 2014, according to a report from ACF.
"The contract has a set amount of money per patient and the nutrition amount is too small to be useful as it doesn't allow for any outreach work to take place," Mark Bowden, the UN Secretary-General's Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and the Humanitarian Coordinator for the country. "So essentially nutrition has been ignored within the health system."
"Poverty is the key issue here. Poverty and ignorance - it can be a vicious cycle," said Homayoun Zaheer, head of the Jalalabad hospital.
Franck Abeille, country director at Action Against Hunger (known by its French acronym ACF) said "When you meet donors they say: 'one year is perfect, let's move forward.' When you suggest three or four years they say: 'I am not sure we can find the funds.' So next year we come back with the same problem."
Claude Jibidar, country director at the World Food Programme, said that one route he was pushing for is to fortify wheat - the staple of the Afghan diet - potentially with government subsidies. "A lot of the micronutrient deficiencies would be immediately dealt with," Jibidar said. "You fortify with a pack of minerals and vitamins dealing with anaemia, iron, vitamin A and vitamin D deficiencies." "People say it has an effect on the price - I am told it would cost about $4-5 dollars additionally per kilo. Even if it is 10 times that the benefit is worth it," he added.Yet such a scheme, while potentially making older Afghans healthier, would only have a limited impact on the youngest.
From here
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