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联合国儿童基金会与业界联手应付空前高涨的营养品供应需求

2011-10-04

哥本哈根／香港，2011年10月4日——联合国儿童基金会（UNICEF）今日召集近百名合作伙伴，商讨对策应付前所未见的营养品需求，又唿吁各联合国组织、民间团体、学界和营养品业界加强合作。

A health worker weighs a girl toddler in a sling-scale in the town of Bétou in the northern Likouala Province. The growth-monitoring activity is part of health and nutrition interventions being provided in the area by the Italian logging concession Likouala Timber. The company, which has concessions for 525,000 hectares of forest land, provides therapeutic food and other health and nutritional services for sick and malnourished children, as well as maternal and general health information. It also supports a skills-training project for young people. An estimated 10,000 people live in the riverside town. In May 2009 in the Republic of the Congo, about half of the countrys 3.7 million people continue to live in poverty, and a large portion of inhabitants more than half of them children remain without basic social services. Despite progress in the areas of health, nutrition, education and basic child protection, access to safe water and sanitation is lacking, and malnutrition and disease remain chronic and widespread. Conflict in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo has also resulted in an influx of refugees into Likouala Province, a remote northern region comprised primarily of indigenous forest. Likouala, which also shares borders with Cameroon and the Central African Republic, is one of the countrys poorest and least-developed areas, with an estimated 165,000295,000 inhabitants who are mostly local Bantu and indigenous Baka. Semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, the Baka, who represent about 10 per cent of the overall population, live mainly in and around the forest and continue to face widespread discrimination. The destruction of large parts of their natural habitat (from logging, poaching and illegal cultivation) also threatens their way of life. Working with the Government, local authorities, NGOs and other partners, UNICEF supports health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, protection and other interventions, including in hard-to-access communities; and also advocates to promote indigenous as well as other child rights.

即食营养治疗食品、儿童体重磅等有效延续生命物资的需求创出歷史新高，有见及此，UNICEF因应不同社区需求的缓急轻重，向营养品业界提供最新的资料，务求各社区均能获得合适的补给品。

有见全球逾2,000万名儿童患上严重急性营养不良，UNICEF供应部主任Shanelle Hall女士表示，「非洲之角」的粮食危机「给我们上了沉重的一课，营养品补给计划必需持续无间地进行，而在紧急事件发生时，我们更加要迅速作出回应。」

UNICEF为全球购置80%的即食营养治疗食品，此项食品是5岁以下严重急性营养不良儿童的最佳治疗。她续指：「我们期望营养品的供应量会在2012年底前能较2010年增加5成，可惜这个数目只能照顾到15%饥饿儿童的需要。」

「我们需与合作伙伴和供应业界通力合作，透过增加供应量、鼓励新供应商加入和支援营养品的创新发展，以确保供求得以相符。」Shanelle Hall女士敦促营养品业界，「协助民间团体、各国政府及联合国，寻求解决是次人道危机的方案。」

另外，与会者亦针对玉米黄豆粉混合品等营养补充食品的全球生产情况作出讨论，这些补充食品曾在「非洲之角」旱灾和索马里饥荒中为数以万计的家庭提供所需营养。一连两日的会议涵盖了不少其他实质议题，包括探讨由无国界医生、联合国世界粮食计划署和UNICEF联手，推出营养治疗和补给品的统一质量保证系统。预计此系统能令审批供应商的过程更有效率，亦会提升营养品的品质至最高水平。

UNICEF供应部的网页上亦刊载了12年来的在国际上购置即食营养治疗食品价目和供应商的名单。