Number 6, December 2012
Development Works
Bread for the World Institute provides
policy analysis on hunger and strategies
to end it. The Institute educates opinion
leaders, policy makers and the public
about hunger in the United States and
abroad.
Snapshot
Peter Verbiscar-Brown/Photoshare
• Foreign assistance focuses on
prevention. This is critical in the
case of early childhood nutrition
and, of course, when there is a
possibility of famine.
• Malnutrition is most dangerous
during the 1,000-day window
between pregnancy and age
2, when it can cause death
or irreversible physical and
cognitive damage. Early childhood
malnutrition can also drain a
country’s development potential.
• Yet early malnutrition can be
prevented at a modest cost with
basic nutrition care.
At the Punwami Child Feeding Program run by Crescent Medical Aid in Kenya, children
receive their noon meal. There are usually more than 30 children given a meal each day.
Why Development Assistance
Can’t Wait
We’ve all heard the old adages on procrastination: a stitch in time saves nine
and so forth. The temptation is to just pay lip service. Maybe this latest problem isn’t truly urgent. A homeowner, for example, may say to herself, maybe I’ll
have more time/money/enthusiasm for repairing the gutters next week—or next
month.
It’s quite possible that nothing will go wrong if the gutter repairs are put off.
On the other hand, a bad storm could cause water damage to the interior of the
house. The homeowner is playing the odds: what is the likelihood of the worstcase scenario, and how bad would it be if it did happen?
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• Famine early warning systems are
now sophisticated, forecasting
accurately up to a year in
advance. Foreign assistance
cannot prevent natural disasters,
but it can help save many lives.
• The potential human
consequences of inaction—
particularly for children under
2—should be weighed carefully in
decisions about emergency relief.
• U.S. development assistance
should focus on resilience—
equipping people to develop
strategies to cope with threats to
their food security.