Desnutrición infantil en el mundo: ¿sentimiento de culpa o de vergüenza?

In November 1996, the attention of the world was directed to Rome, where the heads of government of more than 180 countries participated in the World Food Summit. They committed themselves to eradicating one of the worst scourges in the collective conscience of society: hunger Ten years later, we find that practically no advance has been made towards that objective. In 200103, according to FAO estimates, 854 million people in the world suffered from malnutrition. In the developing world, one out of every four children younger than five years old – 146 million in total are underweight. The damage that undernourishment causes when it is suffered in childhood is of the worst kind, since at this stage of development it is the child's brain that suffers the greatest impact, in which irreversible metabolic and structural alterations will occur. Hunger and undernourishment are not only the consequences of a lack of food, but also of poverty, inequality and a mistaken order of priorities of political will. With a collective effort in the international, national and community environment, putting an end to childhood undernourishment is an objective which is not only possible, but also necessary and high-priority.