Good nutrition is also central to the sustainable develop- ment agenda that is taking shape in the form of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) now under discussion. Inherently sustaining, good nutrition flows throughout the life cycle and across the generations. It promotes individual resilience in the face of shocks and uncertainties generated by climate change and extreme price fluctuations. It supports the generation of in- novations needed to meet the joint challenge of improving the lives of current and future generations in ways that are environ- mentally sustainable.
This Global Nutrition Report is the first in an annual series. It tracks worldwide progress in improving nutrition status, identi- fies bottlenecks to change, highlights opportunities for action, and contributes to strengthened nutrition accountability. The report series was created through a commitment of the signato- ries of the Nutrition for Growth Summit in 2013. It is supported by a wide-ranging group of stakeholders and delivered by an In- dependent Group of Experts in partnership with a large number of external contributors.
This report has a number of unique features. First, it is global in scope. Nearly every country in the world experiences some form of malnutrition, and no country can take good nutrition for granted. Second, because global goals require national action, the report aims to speak to policymakers, practitioners, scientists, and advocates in all countries. It assembles copi- ous country-level data and other information in an accessible manner and highlights the experiences of a large number of countries from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Ca- ribbean, North America, and Oceania. Third, a key focus of the report concerns how to strengthen accountability in nutrition. Many of the core features of malnutrition—including its long- term effects, the need to work in alliances to counter it, and the invisibility of some of its manifestations—make account- ability challenging. We thus identify actions to strengthen key mechanisms, actors, and information in ways that will help hold all of us to account in our efforts to accelerate improvements in nutrition status. Finally, the report is delivered by an Indepen- dent Expert Group charged with providing a view of nutrition progress and an assessment of nutrition commitments that are as independent and evidence based as possible.
From the point of view of the authors, the report itself is an intervention against malnutrition: it is designed to help reframe malnutrition as a global challenge, to raise ambitions about how quickly it can be reduced, and to reenergize actions to reduce it. To accomplish this, we bring together a wide-ranging set of key indicators of nutrition status, actions, and resources for all 193 United Nations member states. We analyze these data in order both to assess worldwide progress in improving nutrition status and to locate individual country progress and experiences within the broader global and regional trends. In addition we provide an accountability mechanism for the commitments made by the 96 signatories of the Nutrition for Growth Summit, monitoring and assessing their self-reported progress against those public declarations of intent to act for nutrition.
xiv GLOBAL NUTRITION REPORT 2014
KEY FINDINGS
The report offers a number of findings regarding the progress that has been made in improving nutrition status, scaling up nutrition action, meeting the commitments made by signatories to the Nutrition for Growth Compact, and reducing data gaps.
Progress in Improving Nutrition Status
1. IMPROVING PEOPLE’S NUTRITION STATUS IS CENTRAL TO ATTAINING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.We summarize ev- idence to show that improvements in nutrition status will make large contributions to SDGs on poverty, food, health, education, gender, and employment. We also show that investments in nutrition have high returns. We estimate new benefit-cost ratios for scaling up nutrition interven- tions in 40 countries. Across these 40 countries, the medi- an benefit-cost ratio is 16—meaning that for every dollar, rupee, birr, or peso invested, at the median more than 16 will be returned. The benefit-cost ratios from investing in nutrition are highly competitive with investments in roads, irrigation, and health.
2. MALNUTRITION AFFECTS NEARLY EVERY COUNTRY. All countries in the world, bar two, that collect nutrition data experience one of the following forms of malnutrition: stunting, anemia, or adult overweight. If the anemia rates in the two outlier countries were just 0.6 percentage points higher, then all countries in the world with nutrition data would be classified as experiencing one of these three forms of malnutrition.
3. ON A GLOBAL SCALE, THE WORLD IS NOT ON COURSE TO MEET THE GLOBAL NUTRITION TARGETS AGREED TO BY THE WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY (WHA). Under existing assump- tions, projections from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF show that the world is not on track to meet any of the six WHA nutrition targets. Globally, little progress is being made in decreasing rates for anemia, low birth weight, wasting in children under age five, and over- weight in children under age five. Progress in increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates has been similarly lackluster. More progress has been made in reducing stunting rates in children under five, but not enough to meet the global target under current projections.
4. ON A COUNTRY-BY-COUNTRY BASIS, THOUGH, MANY COUNTRIES ARE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS IN IMPROVING NUTRITION OUTCOMES. If the global WHA targets were to be applied on a country-by-country basis, how many countries would be on course to meet the targets? Of the four WHA indicators for which we can make country-level assessments, 99 countries have sufficient data to allow for such assessments. Of the 99 countries, 68 are on course for at least one of four WHA global targets and 31 are not on course for any. Out of 109 countries that have data on stunting of children under age five, 22 are on course for meeting the WHA target. Out of 123 countries with data on wasting of children under age five, 59 are on
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118