Unicef officer tells govt to maintain food supply

JAKARTA (JP): A Unicef officer appealed to the government yesterday to issue a special policy to enable households, particularly those still living in poverty, to maintain their food supply during the economic crisis.

Khin-Sandi Lwin, a senior Unicef program officer for advocacy and social mobilization, said the measure should include an effort to set reasonable food prices so households can afford to buy foodstuff in times of economic moderation.

She said Thailand's government had made special provisions for food supply and set a ceiling for staple food in the face of the economic turmoil.

"It ruled that basic food prices must be under a certain amount, and the public could report on shops that raised the prices beyond the fixed cost," she said.

Lwin said that such a policy could ensure that children, particularly those below the poverty line, would not suffer from malnutrition as a result of the lowering standard of living.

"In this economic crisis, children are at a high risk of malnutrition caused by a food shortage," said Lwin in a media gathering held at the launch of a world report on children.

The theme of the 1998 Unicef report is malnutrition.

The annual report said that more than half of all child deaths worldwide was a result of malnutrition, and those who survived are usually left crippled, vulnerable to disease and intellectually disabled.

At its most basic level, malnutrition is a consequence of disease and inadequate dietary intake.

According to the Ministry of Health, 6.9 million children or 30 percent of all children under five suffer from malnutrition in Indonesia.

The government has been campaigning to reduce the number of children suffering from malnutrition by initiating programs such as providing vitamin A tablets, iodine salt and iron supplements to mothers and children living in least developed villages. (09)