Childhood Malnutrition: Global Issue, CST Principles, and Advocacy

This essay examines childhood malnutrition as a significant global health issue, highlighting its impact on children's development, health, and education, particularly in vulnerable populations like Indigenous Australians. It utilizes Catholic Social Teaching (CST) principles to analyze the problem, emphasizing the importance of shared responsibility for the common good, human dignity, and community engagement. The essay explores the causes of malnutrition, including lack of access to resources and inadequate nutrition. It advocates for sustained commitment through funding, multi-sectoral approaches, and initiatives to improve food security and dietary patterns. The essay emphasizes community participation and engagement to promote child nutrition and overall well-being. It also provides the details of several references which were used to write the essay.

Running head: CHILDHOOD MALNUTRITION
Global Issue: Childhood Malnutrition
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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According to the “shared responsibility for common good”, Catholic Social Teaching
(CST), it is the right of every person to have adequate access to resources of the society in
order to live an easy and fulfilling life (Felten, 2013). For sustainable utilization of resources,
the personal possession and community resources must be optimally balanced with the
disadvantaged and dispossessed. The common good is achieved when people residing in the
society work in unison to improve the overall well-being of the mass (Felten, 2013).
Childhood malnutrition, a global burden provides a direct evidence of instances where
the shared responsibility for common good is not being achieved (Ahmed, Hossain & Sanin,
2012). According to reports, in Australia, 44% of paediatric admission takes place due to the
signs of malnutrition (Dengate, 2016). According to the National Rural Health Alliance
Research Australia, the percentage is higher in the remote/regional areas of Australia and
among the Australian’s aboriginals/ Torres Strait Islanders (Bourke et al., 2012). The increase
prevalence in the rural or remote areas gives direct evidence that the act of “shared
responsibility for common good” is not being achieved. According to The Sydney Morning
Herald, the majority of the Australians who lead a lavish life or reside above the poverty
level fail to realise the crisis of accessibility of adequate fruits and vegetables in the rural
areas of Australia (Bagshaw, 2016). Furthermore, UNICEF is of the opinion that there lies a
significant widening gap between the children at the bottom and those at the middle (WHO
Australia, 2013). Thus the resources of the society is not optimally balance, supply of fruits
and vegetables are not scare, but high cost in the supply chain management and lack of
buying power among the people in rural regions of Australia is the driving cause behind the
increase in the incidence of childhood malnutrition (Fan, 2014). Malnourished children suffer
from developmental difficulties which in turn affects their education (Freijer et al., 2013).
According to the report published by UNICEF, Australian children who are suffering from
malnutrition have poorer health and education outcomes WHO Australia, 2013). The Fairness

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for Children Report as published in The Sydney Morning Herald (2016) showed that
Australia ranks 27th out of 35 in the health equality outcomes and 24th out of 37 in education
equality outcomes. Thus these groups of children are deprived of fulfilling life, and the
principle of shared responsibility for common good is bridged.
According to the CST, human dignity is something that can never be taken away. CST
states that each person has their own values that are worthy of respect and they also have
equal rights to be free from slavery, manipulation and exploitation. According to the
Australian Institute of Family Studies, Government of Australia (2017), the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander children are seven times more vulnerable to substantiated reports of
harm or risk of harm. Here harm signifies long hours of work (forced child labour),
educational deprivation and lack of proper meal. Thus their right of human dignity is bridged.
In order to overcome this condition, sustained commitment is required to be endorsed which
covers all the five domains of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement
Principle: partnership, prevention, placement, participation and connection. Moreover, care
should be given that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have equal control over the
decisions that affect their children, thereby providing respect to their values and helping their
to enjoy a life free of slavery. They must also be given a culturally safe environment to thrive
where they get adequate access of food and opportunity of job (not forced labour) and are not
compelled to send their children to earn livelihood for family.
Advocacy under CST signifies that in order to promote quality of life and dignity
among the community, proper advocacy must be under taken on any prevailing issue that is
disrupting the harmony of life and preventing any member of the community to enjoy the
sustainable resources of life (Turner, 2012). In order prevent childhood malnutrition; child
nutrition must be taken into priority. Prioritization of child malnutrition can only be achieved
via renewing funding for child nutrition, such funding can come both from government

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sources or privately funded bodies. The funding must be optimally invested via providing
quality nutrition to child like after school meal, summer meal along with higher
reimbursement rates to school lunch providers (Alim et al., 2012). Other aspect of advocacy
includes initiatives of multi-sectoral approach in order to promote accelerated action on the
selective determinants of malnutrition among the target population. The multi-sectoral
approach must include several schemes and programs that promote nutrition among the
deprived children. Moreover, specific interventions must be advocated towards the vulnerable
group of children like children who are below 5 years of age along with the promotion of
maternal nutrition during the peri-natal and post-natal tenure (Bhutta et al., 2013). Moreover,
advocacy must also be undertaken to fortify the essential foods with micro-nutrients like with
salt, iodine and ion. Initiatives must be taken to popularise food which are low in cost and
scores high on the nutritional content furthermore, strict control regime must be undertaken in
order to eradicate or limit the micronutrient deficiencies among the vulnerable group of
children population. Indirect advocacy must be taken in the grounds of food security like
personalised approach to prevent wastage of food such that the vulnerable groups get
opportunity to enjoy the sustainable resources (Miller & Welch, 2013). Improvement of
dietary pattern via the promotion of the production of nutritionally rich food must be taken
into consideration at the local level along with government and private level initiates towards
improvement of economic balance among the vulnerable population (Gillespie et al., 2013).
Community engagement or community participation is another important aspect of
CST. According to this principle a life of a people apart from being sacred, also has a social
approach. The pattern in which the society rules, political laws and economic principles are
being organised, define the human rights and dignity. It also shapes up the capacity of
individual to grown inside the community (Bernardo, Butcher & Howard, 2012). For children
to grow in a healthy community, they must be given proper food. CST believe that it is the

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duty of the people to participate in society in order to seek common good and well-being for
all, with a special mention to the vulnerable group of people. Such community based
participation in order to promote common good among the vulnerable population must begin
with the selection of appropriate volunteers among the community who are best-fit to
promote child nutrition. This selection of the volunteer will be followed by community based
management of malnutrition (Puett et al., 2012). Under this campaign, the caregivers will
deliver treatment for the children who are suffering from severe malnutrition via ready-to-
use-therapeutic foods along with routine medical care. Community volunteers must also take
special initiatives for severely malnourished children who are suffering from medical
complications or are devoid of appetite (Cederholm et al., 2015). Such highly vulnerable
group of children must be referred to health care professionals or must be referred intensive
care unit. Such community malnutrition model must be implemented in any area where at
least 10% of the total population of children are moderately malnourished or are under-
weight or under-developed (Tappenden et al., 2013). Further improvement in the community
model must be attained via community mobilisation and promotion of supplementary feeding
programme, out-patient therapeutic programme and stabilisation in-patient care programme
(Solheim et al., 2014).

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