This policy brief, commissioned by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and used as a key resource for the Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, June 8, 2013, outlines the relationship that child nutrition has with a country’s economic growth. It outlines several ways in which investments in malnutrition reduction have a positive impact on economic growth.
- boosting GDP in Africa and Asia
- enable a growing demographic group to mature in health
- preventing death and reducing the burden of disease
- increasing school attainment by at least one year
- boosting wage rates and the number of women-owned businesses
- breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
The paper argues that undernutrition can be virtually eliminated in the next 20 years and identifies nutrition investments that are likely to perform well. Lastly, the author argues that the economic losses due to stunting are equal in magnitude to the impact on GDP that major natural resource discoveries have. As such, there is a clear logic in investing in nutrition, so that human potential can be fulfilled and brought to bear on economic growth.