This paper, written in partnership with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and used as a key resource for the Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, June 8, 2013, deals with some of the negative impacts that undernutrition has on child development and, consequently, on other social indicators such as adult health and economic productivity.
The author estimates that the cost of undernutrition in Asia and Africa equals 11% of GNP and a similar figure in Central America. The report also states that 3 million child deaths globally can be attributed to undernutrition. Other figures that the author cites are an extra centimetre of adult height resulting in 4.5 percent higher wage rates and that being underweight is the top contributor to the burden of disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.
To overcome obstacles to resolving the undernutrition problem, the author suggests scaling up proven nutrition interventions; designing programmes in supporting areas that attack the underlying causes of malnutrition (agriculture, social welfare, women’s empowerment, water, sanitation and hygiene, etc.); developing an enabling environment to support these interventions and to hold actors accountable for their actions.