How to solve child malnutrition
There's no question that huge numbers of impoverished people around the world are in desperate need of aid. But the debate over how to help them rages on: Education or welfare? Jill Barshay reports.
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Scott Jagow: In Bangladesh, you can eat out at a good restaurant for about $5, but a new report says most people in Bangladesh and other poor countries can’t afford a basic trip to the grocery store. More now from Jill Barshay.
Jill Barshay: Save the Children says wages in poor countries are so low that many people cannot afford to buy protein and vegetables.
Ina Schonberg works for Save the Children. She says acute malnutrition is a problem in at least 20 countries that are not affected by war or famine.
Ina Schonberg: Households live on between 20 cents and $1 a day. But, for example, feeding a family of five in Ethiopia and Myanmar costs an equivalent of $1.27 or $1.15, respectively. And families often during the hungry season, or sometimes even year round, just can’t make ends meet.
There’s a big debate raging over how to solve child malnutrition.
Save the Children wants to launch a global welfare program to funnel cash from the world’s rich nations directly to poor families.
The World Bank thinks the West sends too much food. It wants to educate mothers instead of making them dependent on the West.
In New York, I’m Jill Barshay for Marketplace.