1000 Days of a Child in DPRK – Nutrition Challenges
Monday, September 22 - The Asia Society Korea Center hosted a special event in Seoul this week as Dierk Stegen, a representative of the World Food Programme in Pyongyang was in town to talk about “1000 days of a child in DPRK – Nutrition Challenges”. Dr. Stegen talked about malnutrition, an overview of the DPRK food and nutrition security, the critical stages of the first 1000 days, maternal health, nutrition challenges and finally windows of opportunity.
The event carried extra significance due to the connection between the Asia Society and the World Food Programme through current President and CEO Josette Sheeran who has worked at the head of both organizations.
Former Prime Minister of Korea and Honorary Chairman of the Asia Society Korea Center, H.E. Hong-Koo Lee was one of many distinguished guests in attendance and Dr. Lee gave the welcoming remarks at the event in which he praised the growth of the Korea Center and also talked of his hope for the future cooperation between all people on the Korean Peninsular.
Dr. Stegen started his presentation by talking about the problems of malnutrition, saying that even if people get enough to eat; they will become malnourished if the food they eat does not provide the proper amounts of calories, vitamins and minerals to meet daily nutritional requirements. Disease and malnutrition are closely linked. Sometimes disease is the result of malnutrition, sometimes it is a contributing cause.
Malnutrition at an early age leads to reduced physical and mental development during childhood. Under nutrition affects school performance and studies have shown it often leads to a lower income as an adult. It also causes women to give birth to low birth-weight babies.
As Dr. Stegen explained, the DPRK is not immune to this malnutrition and the WFP has been operating in the region since the mid 1990’s with significant success, for example in the reduction of malnutrition prevalence rates. Currently the WFP operates in 87 out of the 210 counties in the DPRK and its findings was that although food production is increasing; consumption is still at the borderline and remains limited in both quality and quantity. The staple diet consists of rice, grain, vegetables and kimchi with most calories coming from the staple grains leaving a 30% calorie gap by international recommendations.
Dr. Stegen then went on to talk about how in 2012 it was concluded that there are 2.8 million vulnerable people, two thirds of whom reside in the most food-insecure northern and eastern provinces: Ryanggang, North Hamgyong, South Hamgyong, Chagang, and Kangwon. Most of the remaining vulnerable people live in the food-deficit counties of North and South Pyongan, and in North and South Hwanghae provinces.
During the final part of his presentation, Dr. Stegen talked about the critical intervention “window of opportunity” that exists during the first two years of life and what the WFP is doing to fight these nutritional challenges. It was explained that during this period it is possible to prevent the largely irreversible damage that follows early childhood under nutrition. WFP's operations routinely focus on the earliest phase of life, i.e. the first 1000 days. The aim is to ensure this group receives the vitamins and minerals they need. Many new projects have been implemented from 2013 and the hope is to roll out more throughout 2014. The WFP plans to distribute cereals, vegetable oil and biscuits according to the rations specifically composed for each beneficiary group. Dr. Stegen explained how malnutrition is widespread among children in DPRK and therefore the WFP is prioritizing the provision of assistance to young children to combat the consequences of inadequate nutritional intake on physical and mental development.
The presentation was concluded with Dr. Stegen saying that the promotion of livelihood, fostering partnerships at intra and international levels and the better use of human resources will improve the life of North Koreans.