Stunted Growth In Madagascar Essay

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Introduction
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) had reported (2013) that 1 in 4 children are stunted globally. More precisely, in Madagascar, UNICEF has reported that:
• 76.5% of Madagascar’s population lives in poverty
• 50% of Madagascar’s children under 5 years of age suffer from stunted growth
• Madagascar is 1 of the 10 countries suffering from chronic malnutrition
• About 38,000 of Madagascar children die before they turn 5 o Or 104 children die each day
Children who are within the 125 poor communities that UNICEF emphases on, remain the utmost affected by stunted growth. Mothers who are underprivileged and uneducated about proper nutrition, place their children at risk of becoming stunted. The cost for …show more content…

This island has a population of 17,308,000 with a wide biodiversity hotspot of plants and animals. Even though life expectancy has gone up since its encounter with UNICEF, stunted growth in this underdeveloped country remains an important concern, globally. Within the environment, erosion caused by deforestation and overgrazing makes it difficult for travel between communities and access to clean water and nutritional foods. Medical Services are free and there is a mobile health clinic available. Consequently, the impoverishment that this country experiences and its slow effort to correct the stunted growth issue, makes it difficult for programs like UNICEF to meet the goals it has aimed intended for. In the textbook, Global Health 101 (2016), the first of the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs), is to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty (p. …show more content…

In the Madagascar’s Health Challenges article, from The Lancet, Barmania expressed the government as “The country's president, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, elected in 2013, has survived impeachment by his parliament for alleged constitutional violations and incompetence after challenging the claims in court. But the events are raising questions over the country's already fragile political stability” (2015). In relation to future economic development, the World Bank reported, “Research has shown that stunting by the age of 2 years predicts poor cognitive, language and behavioral development, higher rates of morbidity and mortality, and worse longer term outcomes including labor market participation” (2016). According to the article Nutrition Country Profiles (2011), the World Bank described, “Annually, Madagascar loses over US$720 million in GDP to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Scaling up core micronutrient interventions would cost less than US$10 million per year.” Children who are affected by malnourishment are at high risk of impaired cognitive development, this then disrupts Madagascar’s productivity and growth (2011). It has been shown through research that it is very hard for Madagascar to take focus away from political issues and put efforts toward the health of their

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