Asian boom bypasses children

The malnourishment of 36 million children under the age of five and the death of 75,000 women during childbirth each year has marred economic success in East Asia and the Pacific, a UN report released on Tuesday said.

More than 20 percent of children under five in relatively affluent Malaysia and the Philippines were moderately or severely malnourished, according to the UN children's Fund (Unicef) annual Progress of Nations report.

The struggling economies of Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam had malnutrition rates of more than 30 percent for children under five, but Mongolia and China recorded rates of less than 20 percent.

These figures are disturbing because the so-called East Asian boom is not trickling down to the people that matter most.

The nutritional level of a nation's children is more than an indicator of the children's well-being. It is also one of the most important overall measures of national development efforts.

The problem of the economic marginalization of the poorest people within nations must be confronted.

No social progress can be sustained, no human development can be anticipated if social and economic exclusion continues to be the chief characteristic of national and global economic systems. "Meeting children's needs depends not just on social services but on their parents having jobs and incomes. The cost of a major effort in bringing about land reforms, investing in small producers, and creating large numbers of jobs would be a little more than US$30 billion a year.

Double it, it is less than what the world spends on wine. Triple it, it is far less than what the world spends on cigarettes.

But money alone is not enough.

Sustained political commitment and competent management are just as important.

But to say that governments at this stage, especially states in East Asia, cannot afford the financial cost of meeting its children's needs and ending some of the very worst aspects of poverty, malnutrition, preventable disease, and illiteracy, is plainly absurd.

-- The Nation, Bangkok