Blog Post

Putting Nutrition on the G8 Agenda

The 2013 G8 Summit is fast approaching, and development actors around the world are pressing for malnutrition to take center stage at the talks. In the lead-up to the summit, The Lancet , one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, has released a new series on maternal and child malnutrition . This latest series continues the discussion generated by the journal's 2008 series on nutrition, which culminated in the creation of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement and recent increased focus on the importance of a child's first 1,000 days.

The series finds that, worldwide, children still die from malnutrition at a staggering rate: an estimated 3.1 million each year. However, the authors also point out strategies that could change these statistics, if global leaders choose to act. The key, say the authors, is incorporating nutrition into broader development programs dealing with agriculture, social protection, education, and more; it is not enough to tackle nutrition purely from an economic standpoint. The infographic below shows how economic development is a double-edged sword when it comes to nutritional outcomes.

Economic Growth is a Double-Edged Sword for Nutrition

Economic Growth is a Double-Edged Sword for Nutrition infographic by IFPRI.

 

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