Latest news with #RolandKupka
Independent Singapore
09-05-2025
- Health
- Independent Singapore
Asia's children starve as planet burns: UNICEF sounds alarm on surging child malnutrition in Asia
SINGAPORE: Children appeared to be the most defenceless victims as climate change continues to drain food and health systems across Asia. In the latest CNA report, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that climate disturbances are making the malnutrition issue worse, even in fast-developing areas, with dreadful costs to the physical and cognitive development of millions of young lives. Climate change hits food and health systems hard Roland Kupka, UNICEF's regional nutrition adviser for East Asia and the Pacific, stressed the mounting risk during his speech at Ecosperity Week, a sustainability forum initiated by Temasek in Singapore. Kupka emphasised how climate change has weakened both food and healthcare systems, accelerating the increase in infection rates that diminish essential nutrients from children's bodies, and cutting both the existing quality and quantity of food. 'Climate change is impairing food systems,' Kupka stated. 'It's hard to talk about climate action without putting children and their nutrition at the centre.' A growing nutrition gap Notwithstanding Asia's economic advancement, approximately 19 million children all over the continent continue to be persistently underfed. Kupka indicated a disconcerting twofold problem — extensive lack of vitamins and minerals on one side, and growing rates of childhood obesity on the other. This disparity, he clarified, is entrenched in insufficient access to nourishing food, availability of healthcare amenities, and knowledgeable nutritional practices. 'Children need access to the right diets, services, and practices,' said Kupka. 'And governments need support to design the right policies to confront all forms of malnutrition.' Financing and policy: Breaking through structural barriers Inadequate and ill-targeted funding is one of the major impediments to meaningful development. Kupka called for new mechanisms that can evaluate financing requirements and spur the production and delivery of nourishing foods in vulnerable regions. For example, UNICEF's Child Nutrition Fund intends to fast-track workable agendas to fight undernutrition all over Asia and elsewhere. 'Governments must lead, but they can't do it alone,' he said, highlighting the role of humanitarians and sponsors in steering pioneering models that can later be scaled by public organisations. Innovation and resilience Kupka encouraged Asian countries to seize and take advantage of state-of-the-art possibilities and not to repeat the mistakes of other regions that were unsuccessful in adapting to life-threatening climate effects. With that, Asia could become a worldwide frontrunner in combining climate flexibility and child sustenance into workable development policies. 'With the region's capacity for innovation, there is real potential to lead the world in climate action—and ensure no child is left behind,' he concluded.
CNA
07-05-2025
- Health
- CNA
UNICEF warns of climate change worsening child malnutrition in Asia
SINGAPORE: Climate change is worsening malnutrition in Asia, with young children bearing the brunt of increasingly fragile health and food systems, said the United Nations children's agency UNICEF. Despite rapid development in the region, many children are still not getting the nutrition they need, UNICEF's regional nutrition adviser for East Asia and the Pacific Roland Kupka told CNA on Tuesday (May 6). 'Climate change is putting pressure on health systems. It is increasing the prevalence of infections, which drain children's bodies of vital nutrients,' he said at the sidelines of Ecosperity Week, an annual sustainability event hosted by Temasek. 'At the same time, climate change is impairing food systems. So we see decreases in the quality (and) quantity of food, and all that makes it very clear that it's hard to talk about climate action without putting children, as well as children's nutrition, at the centre of those efforts.' ENDING CHILD HUNGER Kupka stressed that the nutrition crisis in Asia is becoming increasingly urgent, where about 19 million children are 'chronically undernourished'. Malnutrition, which is an imbalance between the nutrients one's body needs to function and the nutrients it receives, can significantly stunt children's physical and brain development, he added. 'We also see that deficiencies in vitamins and minerals are still very common, and at the same time, we see that more and more children are overweight and obese. 'So I think really what we need to make sure is that children have access to the right diets, the right services and to the right practices, and that we support governments to put in place the right policies and programmes to address these forms of malnutrition.' Kupka said the financing of aid programmes is one of the biggest hurdles in tackling malnutrition. He noted that there is a need for "mechanisms" that can assess various financing needs and incentivise the production of certain nutritious food in settings where they are needed. UNICEF, for instance, has introduced the Child Nutrition Fund to quicken the scaling up of sustainable policies, programmes and supplies to end child undernutrition, said Kupka. 'We feel that that has real promise to address malnutrition in this region, as well as in other regions.' GOVERNMENT ACTION He also called on governments to take greater measures to close Asia's nutrition gap, noting that they are at the core of change to implement effective policies. 'I think it's the duty of governments to watch out for the rights of their citizens, to put in place the policies and the programmes,' he added. 'But governments cannot do it alone, and that's where I feel philanthropists can come in — they have the freedom, the speed, the agility to try out new things, new models that can then be taken over by governments later.' When asked how Asia can build better climate resilience and food security, Kupka said the region can 'avoid a lot of mistakes that were made in other parts' of the world. These include failing to adapt practices to withstand increasingly extreme weather conditions 'We can combine this with a quest for innovation that this region has… and really lead the way in the whole world when it comes to climate action, as well as areas such as child nutrition,' he added.
