In April, President Guillermo Lasso submitted a bill on Organic Law for the Protection and Comprehensive Development of Children in Early Childhood, which aimed at broadening minors’ protection by turning it into not only a governmental program, but also a State issue in order to invest all necessary resources in it.
Ending chronic child malnutrition was one of Lasso’s promises, but his administration showed inaccurate figures regarding the number of children facing up malnutrition.
Latest poll was conducted back in 2018, and the data were not encouraging since 27% of children under 2 had chronic malnutrition back then, according to the Director of the National Institute of Statistics (INEC) Roberto Castillo.
In turn, the UN Global Compact Ecuador Network Director Mariana Tufiño assured her country has reached 2nd regional position with highest percentage of children facing chronic malnutrition.
Meanwhile, violence and disputes between criminal gangs associated with drug trafficking have caused the death of 192 minors in Ecuador in 2022, official data recorded.
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