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NUTRITION IS CENTRAL TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
E
FFORTS TO IMPROVE PEOPLE’S NUTRITION WILL CONTRIBUTE TO PROGRESS IN MANY AREAS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. PERSISTENT MALNUTRITION REFLECTS A
failure of the development process. This chapter highlights the importance of nutrition status for a wide range of development outcomes.
Using new data, evidence, and analysis, the chapter also illustrates the possibility of
reaching and exceeding World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets under de- manding but realistic rates of progress in nutrition-relevant actions.
NUTRITION HAS HIGH HUMAN AND ECONOMIC RETURNS
The costs of undernutrition and obesity are increasingly well known (Table 2.1). The human costs are high in terms of preventable mortality and morbidity. Accordingly, the economic costs are also large. Gross domestic product (GDP) totals in Africa and Asia are less than 90 percent of what they would be in the absence of undernutrition, and in China, approximately 95 percent of what they would be in the absence of obesity.
All of the studies cited in Table 2.1 stress the conservative nature of their assump- tions and the lower-bound nature of the estimates. The future economic costs of obesity for China are projected to more than double—from 4 percent of gross na- tional product (GNP) in 2000 to 9 percent of GNP in 2025 (Popkin et al. 2006). Unlike China, many countries, such as Indonesia, are experiencing high rates of both under- weight and obesity, and hence the costs of poor nutrition for them are even higher than single-burden estimates. It is vital that countries avoid this double economic burden and strategize to reduce undernutrition and overweight and obesity at the same time.
KEY POINTS
1. The human and economic costs of all forms of malnutrition are substantial. The economic benefit- cost ratios of investing in interventions to reduce child stunting are highly competitive with other public investments.
2. Nutrition has the potential to be a core component of the post-2015 agenda, but there is no room for complacency. The case for nutrition must be made more strongly.
3. New country data, experiences, and analysis show that rapid progress in reducing malnutrition is possible.
4. The Sustainable Development Goals’ nutrition targets for 2030 should be significantly more ambitious than simple extrapolations of the WHA targets for 2025. The nutrition community must generate targets for 2030 that are challenging but reachable.
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