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‘A disgrace for oil-rich Guyana to lead region in child malnutrition’ – Dr. Adams
Kaieteur News – During the Alliance for Change (AFC) press conference on Friday, party member and former Head of Guyana’s Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams expressed deep concern over oil-rich Guyana alarming status as a leader in severe child malnutrition within the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region.
Former Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr. Vincent Adams
The recently released United Nations (UN) report on Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition underscores the persistence of ‘wasting,’ a severe form of child malnutrition, with Guyana at the forefront. Wasting, characterized by a child’s weight falling dangerously below their height, poses a life-threatening risk due to rapid weight loss or failure to gain weight. The report emphasizes that timely intervention can mitigate this condition.
Dr. Adams during the press engagement said, “How could this be possible for the country with the fastest growing economy in the world, at the very same time being ranked amongst the world’s worst child malnourish countries in all of the Latin America and Caribbean, with a rate five times those countries.”
He continued, “How could this be possible for a country with the fastest growing economy in the world at the very same time have almost twice the child malnourishment rate as Haiti, a country that has been ranked as the poorest in this hemisphere and amongst the poorest in the world?”
The UN report indicates positive progress toward the World Health Assembly (WHA 2025) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030) targets of maintaining wasting levels in children under 5 below 5% and 3%, respectively. However, Guyana and Suriname stand out with prevalence rates of 6.9% and 5.5%, respectively, signaling the urgent need for targeted interventions.
Source: UNICEF, WHO & World Bank. 2023. Levels and trends in child malnutrition: UNICEF / WHO / World Bank Group Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates: key findings of the 2023 edition. New York, UNICEF and WHO. https://data.unicef.org/resources/jme-report-2023
Dr. Adams underscored the critical importance of addressing child malnutrition, linking it to the nation’s future development. He added, “With the consequence to not only our children for generations to come, but also with the consequence to develop the nation, one would think that this would have and should have immediately caught the attention of any real and competent government.”
“Such reports would engender emergency action, after all this is the country’s future. But this very serious and consequential matter is just pushed aside by the government,” a deeply disturbed Adams continued by saying.
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