TO KNOW THAT DYING OF MALNUTRITION EXISTS

To know that dying of malnutrition and starvation is now simply commonplace. To be told that dying while giving birth does not even make headlines. To die before the age of five from diseases that the world knows how to cure is an everyday occurrence for thousands of children. It is a tragic reality in places not too far from us.

Over the course of one year, COVID-19 and its mutations have been challenging the roles and competencies of the political and administrative executives, as well as the adaptability of the health and education systems. The pandemic has shaken up economic systems, our work structure, our social relationships, our role in society and our different lifestyles. The virus has also forced us to protect specific groups of people, in this case the oldest and most vulnerable. Finally, COVID-19 has limited mobility and restricted our freedom. Stages of confinement have been put in place, and there will still be significant restrictions that will be implemented as the situation evolves. However, notwithstanding the improvement in our knowledge of the virus and its mutations, its spread and infectivity rate, its relationship with existing pathologies, and the time and degree of immunity, it is exceedingly difficult to predict how it will evolve. And when this evolution seems to be under control, new conditions emerge and call almost all hypotheses and solutions into question.

This inability to be able to predict what will happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow generates a lack of clarity in communication that translates into positive and/or negative emotions for the majority of citizens. These emotions are exacerbated by the media whose raison d'être is based on focusing on this lack of clarity and the necessary adjustments with the sole purpose of gaining visibility to generate a high degree of virality in social networks. In this context, many reports have been published alongside photos demonstrating the brutality and the severity of the situation and the urgent need to take protective measures for health, the economy and social and societal accompaniment. These actions have also focused on the role of health care personnel and the demonstrations in recognition of their contributions and commitments.

A survey conducted in January 2021 by ConnectAID, the International Solidarity Network, showed that 49% of a panel of respondents were in favor of the dissemination of realistic and sometimes shocking photos relating to child malnutrition, compared to 21% who were against and 30% who were unsure. Clearly, this dissemination is conditional on respect for human beings. However, making realities visible to all has already been used for various issues such as speeding on roads, violence during armed conflicts, violence against children or women, and animal abuse.

These results reflect the degree of emotion generally caused in an individual who consciously or unconsciously assesses an event as congruent with the goals and objectives important to him or her in terms of relevance, fairness, temporality, consistency, and proximity. Emotion is felt as negative if the event hinders fixed goals and positive if it facilitates their achievement.

In this moment of pandemic, which is affecting the whole planet, the event highlights our goal to stay healthy while maintaining our freedom and, moreover, to not affect the economy which is an extremely fine balance to keep.

If the clarity and congruence of the measures presented translate into certainty about both the immediate and long-term future, they generate positive emotions. If the measures presented result in uncertainty about that future, emotions are negative. These can vary according to culture, education, political and social environment but especially according to the proximity of the event. However, today, the notion of proximity is virtual, especially if it is perceived as being, in the long run, of direct concern to us. Malnutrition is definitely one of these factors and given the magnitude of the situation, we are on the one hand deprived of a solution and on the other hand we consciously or unconsciously refuse to accept that one day our children or grandchildren will look like the people in these photos.

Consequently, these considerations must alert us to something that is more visibly evident than ever: this planet, whose people inhabit it share its wealth and vulnerabilities. The pandemic, by sparing no region of the world, reveals to everyone our collective vulnerability and solidarity. This virus is deadly, but so is extreme poverty, malnutrition, and famine. In its April 2020 report, the World Food Programme (WFP) stated that 821 million people suffer from hunger. Still according to WFP, 265 million people would be in a situation of serious food insecurity at the end of 2020, or 130 million more than in 2019. Approximately 21,000 people die every day in the world from hunger-related causes (ref. WFP) However, as COVID-19 demonstrates in emergency cases, funding is available. "Whatever the cost" as some heads of state have pledged. Progress against extreme poverty is taking a huge step backwards. And despite this, there are countries, such as Boris Johnson's Great Britain, Viktor Orban's Hungary or Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Poland, among others, that are seriously considering reducing the amounts allocated to international solidarity. Moreover, many of these countries received international aid at the time.

The world of the next decade is more than ever in need of international solidarity, and this will require ambitious global public development aid. Aid that is free of budgetary manipulation for domestic policy purposes, without misappropriation to serve immigration control objectives, or to promote the trade interests of donor countries as we have seen recently. In concrete terms, aid with the ultimate objective of pulling the entire population of the world out of the subsistence level of less than $1.90 (1.57) per day. SD1, zero extreme poverty in 2030, is the commitment that the international community made before the UN in 2015. Experience shows that we know how to do it. Extreme poverty has decreased since the 1990s. Preventable diseases now claim half as many victims as they did then. Much remains to be done to reach SDG 1 and if the shock from the photos disturbs you, that is fine, as long as the goal is to continue the effort of eradicating poverty.

If, in the name of the millions of human lives that need to be saved, the citizens of most countries on planet earth have collectively mandated their respective governments to shut down entire sectors of economic activities, to confine them, to put them and several future generations in debt, to interrupt education and culture, is it not because human life and its dignity in the broadest sense of the word must be the ultimate imperative? So, let us be consistent and allocate a fraction of one percent of the GDP of the entire international community to this development aid where the need is most urgent, in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, and not where it is most comfortable. Let us support the development of international social services through NGOs, particularly education and health, because the populations of disadvantaged countries have basically the same needs and the same prerequisites for their emancipation as the most advantaged. Let us create a tax on certain financial transactions and/or on transportation of seasonal products, which would partly finance this aid through a fair redistribution of world wealth, whatever the cost, let us remember that we share this world with previous generations and generations to come.

Jean-Pierre CUBIZOLLE

Member of the Board of Directors

@ConnectAID

Geneva 21th of January 2021