Jorge Salamanca: “It is Outrageous that Millions of Children Die Every Year From Malnutrition Even Though a Political Solution Exists”

Jorge Salamanca teaches the Undernutrition and Food Security module in the ISGlobal–University of Barcelona Master of Global Health. He was born in the Hortaleza neighbourhood of Madrid, but has lived in Barcelona for going on nine years. Jorge has dedicated his life to international cooperation and humanitarian work: he has spent more than 17 years living abroad in different countries, mainly located in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.

- When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was young—and also when I was older—I wanted to be a doctor, but I was squeamish about blood, so I couldn’t go through with it.

- When did you decide to go into international cooperation?

The Central American earthquakes of the 1980s had a huge impact on me, especially the El Salvador quake of 1986, which was all over the Spanish media. I saw the efforts of aid workers and knew that I wanted to do that.

- Are you very concerned at this time about any particular issue?

I am very concerned about the consequences of climate change. I’m not sure people have realised how the changes are going to impact every aspect of our lives. I believe that our current model of consumption, energy use, and exploitation of the planet is not sustainable. And I am worried about the legacy we are leaving to the next generation.

"I’m not sure people have realised how the changes are going to impact every aspect of our lives. I believe that our current model of consumption, energy use, and exploitation of the planet is not sustainable."

- If you could have dinner tomorrow with anyone in the world, who would it be? And where would you go for dinner?

Now that’s a tough question! I would love to meet Almudena Grandes, who is one of my favourite writers. I’d take her out for cocido madrileño at Malacatín and we’d talk about literature.

- We live in a world that produces vast quantities of food, but people in some places are still dying of starvation. How would you suggest we go about eradicating hunger?

This is one of the world’s greatest contradictions. We produce enough food to feed the entire world population, but more than 820 million people do not have enough to eat! The problem is not one of food production but rather one of access, in terms of both physical and economic access to adequate nutrition. The four pillars of food security are availability, access, utilization and stability. From a human rights perspective, it is essential to guarantee food security for everyone—the right to food as described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

- Is the solution technical or political?

We don’t have a silver bullet that will eradicate hunger. It’s not a technical problem; it’s a political one. Therefore, the solutions must also be political.

We already have the tools that can save children suffering from acute malnutrition. Children can survive with a simple 25-day outpatient treatment called Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).

Some 3.1 million children under five years of age die from malnutrition every year. So why don’t we scale up the solutions we have and save them all? What is happening is outrageous! And, in my opinion, it’s because there is no political will to act.

"When the political will is there and countries implement policies aimed at reducing hunger, we see results."

- Yes, but the political solution is very complex...

Everybody always says that we live in a complex world and solutions—even simple ones—are difficult to implement. Why? There have been plenty of success stories in the global fight against hunger, including “Fome Zero” in Brazil and “Lucha contra la desnutrición” in Peru, both of which have drastically reduced the number of people suffering from chronic hunger in those countries. When the political will is there and countries implement policies aimed at reducing hunger, we see results. The main challenge for us, as a society and as a generation, is whether we want to be remembered as the generation that allowed 820 million people to go hungry or as the generation that tackled this problem once and for all.