Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress 2

Mobilising evidence, data, and resources to achieve global maternal and child undernutrition targets and the Sustainable Development Goals: an agenda for action

Rebecca A Heidkamp, Ellen Piwoz, Stuart Gillespie, Emily C Keats, Mary R D’Alimonte, Purnima Menon, Jai K Das, Augustin Flory, Jack W Clift, Marie T Ruel, Stephen Vosti, Jonathan Kweku Akuoku, Zulfiqar A Bhutta

Published: March 07, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00568-7

Informational source: The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00568-7/fulltext

As the world counts down to the 2025 World Health Assembly nutrition targets and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, millions of women, children, and adolescents worldwide remain undernourished (underweight, stunted, and deficient in micronutrients), despite evidence on effective interventions and increasing political commitment to, and financial investment in, nutrition. The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled health systems, exacerbated household food insecurity, and reversed economic growth, which together could set back improvements in undernutrition across low-income and middle-income countries. This paper highlights how the evidence base for nutrition, health, food systems, social protection, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions has evolved since the 2013 Lancet Series on maternal and child nutrition and identifies the priority actions needed to regain and accelerate progress within the next decade. Policies and interventions targeting the first 1000 days of life, including some newly identified since 2013, require renewed commitment, implementation research, and increased funding from both domestic and global actors. A new body of evidence from national and state-level success stories in stunting reduction reinforces the crucial importance of multisectoral actions to address the underlying determinants of undernutrition and identifies key features of enabling political environments. To support these actions, well-resourced nutrition data and information systems are essential. The paper concludes with a call to action for the 2021 Nutrition for Growth Summit to unite global and national nutrition stakeholders around common priorities to tackle a large, unfinished undernutrition agenda—now amplified by the COVID-19 crisis.

Full text

Related posts

20 October 2016

World Health Day 2017. Depression: Let’s talk

World Health Day, celebrated on 7 April every year to mark the anniversary of the founding of the World Health...

15 May 2016

DR. MATT MUIJEN, PROGRAMME MANAGER FOR MENTAL HEALTH, WHO REGIONAL OFFICE FOR EUROPE, A MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, DELIVERS A KEYNOTE REPORT AT THE CONGRESS

Dr. Matt Muijen, Programme Manager for Mental Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe since May 2004, has joined...

3 May 2017

26th European Congress of Psychiatry – EPA 2018

  The 26th Congress of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) will take place 3-6 March 2018 at the Nice Acropolis Convention...

31 August 2016

Program of the International Conference Mental Health in the Workplace is unveiled

Professional activity is the most important sphere of human life, and professional identity almost universally serves as the foundation of...

31 March 2021

Meeting of the United Nations Member States Group of Friends of Mental Health and Well-being

Meeting of the United Nations Member States Group of Friends of Mental Health and Well-being "Mental Health and Well-Being in...

14 September 2016

Mental Health and Wellbeing at the Heart of the SDGs

7 Sep 2016 - Dr. Judy Kuriansky, a speaker of the upcoming Congress on Mental Health: Meeting the Needs of...

7 March 2017

The first Running Hearts green marathon

On 28 May 2017 children’s charity the Naked Heart Foundation will be presenting the first Running Hearts green marathon in...

29 February 2016

Dr. Edward Chan, President of the Asian Federation of Psychotherapy, with Welcome address to the Congress participnats

Dr. Edward Chan, President of the Asian Federation of Psychotherapy (AFP) and President of the Malaysian Association of Psychotherapy (MAP),...

16 January 2016

Prof. Alfred Pritz, President of the World Council for Psychotherapy, addressed welcome words to the I World Congress on Mental Health

Prof. Alfred Pritz, President of the World Council for Psychotherapy (Vienna, Austria), Ph.D in Psychopathology and Pedagogics in Salzburg, General secretary of the...

30 August 2016

Prof. Jan Burns, Head of Eligibility for the International Federation for Para-athletes with Intellectual Disabilities (INAS), will make a keynote report

  Prof. Jan Burns, Head of Eligibility for the International Federation for Para-athletes with Intellectual Disabilities (INAS) and worked with...