Every nation has a problem of malnultrition'

DW: The UN says 800 million people are undernourished and 160 million children are suffering from delayed growth as a result of malnutrition. Malnutrition is not just about how much you eat, it's also about what you eat. What will this conference be doing to ensure that people in poorer countries - in particular in Africa - get a proper, healthy balanced diet?

Martin Bloem: If you look at stunted children, yes we have 160 million stunted children. But the problem with stunting is that, if you are stunted at the age of two, then you are stunted for the rest of your life. You will have lower brain development, lower physical capacity, you will have problems later on with schooling, and problems with chronic diseases. When you are stunted you have an increased risk of being over weight. So the consequences of stunting go far beyond being hungry. The damage of stunting is actually far beyond the problem of hunger. Hunger is lack of energy, but malnutrition is a combination of many different factors such as quality of food, quality of nutrients in the first one thousand days, water, sanitation and health systems. So the key to solve the problem in Africa is not only focusing on agriculture. It is very important that small holder farmers try to improve their yields as well as look for ways on how they can improve their sells at the market. But it is also very important to improve health systems. So both food systems and health systems are equally important.

Now this is the second International Conference on Nutrition. Since the first conference in 1992 the number of people suffering from malnutrition has dropped by 200 million. Does this give you confidence that more progress lies ahead or are you pessimistic?

No, to be honest I would not be pessimistic if I would only look at data. This conference is not in isolation. We have the post 2015 development goals coming up. According to a global report which was announced two days ago, every nation has a problem of malnutrition. So it's not anymore only a problem of low and middle income countries, it is a problem of the world. And it's intra-dependent. If you want to have better food systems we have to work together. You can't do it in isolation. As a person who worked in nutrition for the past 30 years I am actually very optimistic, but we have to prove it. If we don't prove it in the next couple of years, if we are not really starting to go out of silos and really think about what is really needed, that no child should be stunted, then I think we will fail.

What can African nations expect from this three day conference?

The African nations have to do it to a large extent themselves and they are all here. Of course they will need systems. WFP is heavily involved in fighting Ebola, in South Sudan, CAR and in Ethiopia. But I think what is switching now is that African countries, yes they are low and middle income countries, they have to take a stand and ask themselves, what do we learn out of this conference? What can I do? That is more important than saying how can the world help me? I think that is the number one lesson that people should take away from the conference. Number two, there is a world of knowledge available in the UN agencies, in the academic world which are obliged to work together with African countries to prevent this problem. I think that is the main message out of this conference.

Martin Bloem, World Food Program nutrition advisor

Interview: Isaac Mugabi