According to the latest report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (UNOCHA), one in five children under the age of five in Pakistan is suffering from wasting. The rate of severe acute malnutrition stands at 8% and moderate acute malnutrition at 9.7% among children under five.
According to the report, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicates that approximately 10.5 million people in 43 vulnerable districts of the country are facing acute food insecurity. Within this population, around 2.1 million individuals are in the emergency phase, while 8.4 million are in the crisis phase.
🔹 10.5M people are experiencing food insecurity in 43 vulnerable districts.
🔹 Over 3.5M children are impacted by severe malnutrition in the 84 flood-affected districts.Learn more in our latest Situation Report➡️ https://t.co/ElFbHzVyKW pic.twitter.com/uGm4l7hu7b
— UN Humanitarian (@UNOCHA) June 14, 2023
Pakistan has been classified as a “hotspot with very high concerns” in terms of hunger and acute food shortage. Nearly a year after massive floods ravaged one-third of the country, people in flood-affected reasons are suffering from high rates of malnutrition.
As many as 84 districts, including 18 in Balochistan, 16 in Sindh, and nine in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, which were severely affected by the 2022 flooding, are now displaying distressing nutrition indicators. According to UN estimates, undernutrition accounts for nearly half of all deaths in children under five.
The report mentions that “Over 3.5 million children are impacted by a severe acute malnutrition rate of 12 percent.” Among them, at least 1.45 million children are in immediate need of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) due to severe wasting. The report suggests that access to food is likely to worsen in the country between November 2023 and January 2024, with an estimated 11.8 million people expected to face acute food shortage.
The report also suggests that political instability following the ouster of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a vote-of-no-confidence in April 2022 has contributed to the current crisis of high inflation and food insecurity.
“Unfortunately, the prevailing economic and political crises have further deteriorated the situation, leading to a decline in households’ purchasing power and their ability to afford food and essential commodities,” the report said.
