Summary
10 May 2012
The West African state of Niger, currently severely affected by a growing regional food crisis, has become the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children.
Reporter:
Mike Wooldridge
Nearly one third of Niger's children are malnourished.
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Report
This year's report highlights the major impact nutrition has on the welfare of mothers and children, in particular, the chronic malnutrition that undermines physical and mental growth, producing stunting and what Save the Children calls the vicious cycle of mothers stunted in childhood who go on to give birth to underweight and vulnerable babies.
Food emergencies compound the impact, and Niger is at the epicentre of the emergency currently developing in the Sahel. After two years at the bottom of the index Afghanistan has moved up one position, partly, Save the Children says, because it's invested in more front-line health workers.
The agency says the simple measure of supporting more mothers to breastfeed could save a million children's lives a year.
Save the Children identifies Norway as the best place to be a mother. It ranks the United Kingdom tenth.
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Vocabulary
- nutrition
the process by which eating food makes someone healthy
- welfare
health and safety
- chronic
long-lasting
- undermines
weakens
- vicious cycle
a bad situation that repeats itself
- vulnerable
weak and easily harmed
- epicentre
central point
- front-line
important, actually doing the work
- measure
action
- ranks
positions, scores
