Report Reveals Half of Child Deaths Caused by Malnutrition
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah recently spoke at an international meeting that discussed the new Lancet report on child nutrition. (Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States
Global leaders met in London this month to launch the Lancet’s “2013 Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition.”
This new four-part series is a much-anticipated follow-up to their landmark 2008 set of papers that elevated nutrition on the agenda of global health and development leaders. Those reports identified the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday as the most significant indicator of lifelong nutrition, growth, and achievement.
The new series looks at the factors and conditions that sustain healthy infants and children. The first paper looks at how gender issues can influence malnutrition. Other topics include nutrition interventions and creating environments that support nutrition programs.
“The release of these new papers is significant as global leaders assess their first 1,000 days of scaling up maternal and child nutrition programs,” Asma Lateef, director of Bread for the World Institute, said in a press release. “We need to solidify political commitments, and these new reports bolster the earlier findings and will help development leaders set fresh goals.”
The new Lancet reports were discussed during an international meeting here June 10. During the meeting, convened by Bread for the World and Concern Worldwide, participants assessed progress made since September 2010—nearly 1,000 days ago—when the United States and Ireland launched the 1,000 Days Call to Action and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, focused on countries with the highest malnutrition rates.
Speakers during the meeting include Rajiv Shah, the Indian American administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
IIP Digital adds: The United States plans to spend $9 billion on nutrition activities through 2014, says Shah.
The funds will accelerate activities aimed at reducing child stunting by 20 percent by 2018 in the 19 low-resource countries supported by Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.
Meanwhile, according to India’s National Family Health Survey, on average, 61 of 1,000 infants in India do not survive till their fifth birthday, and 80 percent of these deaths occur in the first two years of life.
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