Beitrag vom 02.06.2015

International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington

Global Nutrition Report 2014

Malnutrition affects one in two people on the planet. Of these, 162 million children under the age of five are estimated to be stunted (i.e. low height for age). Two billion people are estimated to be deficient in one or more micronutrients. Nearly 1.5 billion people are estimated to be overweight and over 500 million to be obese. These conditions all have severe consequences for survival, for morbidity, and for the ability of individuals, the economy and society to thrive. In relation to the scale that these problems imply, the allocation of public resources to their prevention and amelioration is minuscule. Resources to specific nutrition programmes amount to a small fraction of one per cent of domestic or aid budgets.

The Global Nutrition Report convenes existing processes, highlights progress in combating malnutrition and identifies gaps and proposes ways to fill them. Through this, the Report helps to guide action, build accountability and spark increased commitment for further progress towards reducing malnutrition much faster.

At its core, the Report aims to empower nutrition champions at the national level to better inform policy decisions and to strengthen the case for increased resources. A repository of global and country-level nutrition data and analysis, the Report also provides civil society organisations (CSOs), donors, governments, the business sector, researchers, the media and engaged citizens with evidence of the current scale of malnutrition, the measures being taken to combat it, as well as highlighting what more needs to be done.

The 2014 Report is funded through the support of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Government of Canada, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the European Commission, Irish Aid, 1,000 Days and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition & Health.

The Report was delivered by an Independent Expert Group and guided at a strategic level by a Stakeholder Group, whose members also reviewed the Report. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) oversaw the production and dissemination of the Report, with the support of the Secretariat based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The Lancet, the premier peer-reviewed medical journal, managed the blind external review process for the Report, which was launched during the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in Rome in November 2014. There will be follow-up events for the Report in a several cities around the world.

Key Points

1.
People with good nutrition are key to sustainable development.
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Malnutrition affects nearly every country in the world.
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More nutrition indicators need to be embedded within the Sustainable Development Goal accountability framework.
2.
We need to commit to improving nutrition faster and build this goal into the Sustainable Development Goal targets for 2030.
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The 2030 Sustainable Development Goal targets should be more ambitious than simple extensions of the 2025 World Health Assembly targets. A new consensus about what is possible needs to be established.
3.
The world is currently not on course to meet the global nutrition targets set by the World Health Assembly, but many countries are making good progress in the target indicators.
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More high-quality case studies are needed to understand why progress has or has not been made.
4.
Dealing with different, overlapping forms of malnutrition is the "new normal.”
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Nutrition resources and expertise need to be better aligned toward the evolving nature of malnutrition.
5.
We need to extend coverage of nutrition-specific programs to more of the people who need them.
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More attention needs to be given to coverage data—an important way of assessing presence on the ground where it counts.
6.
A greater share of investments to improve the underlying determinants of nutrition should be designed to have a larger impact on nutritional outcomes.
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We need to keep tracking the proportion of nutrition resources to these approaches.
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We must also provide more guidance on how to design and implement these approaches to improve their effectiveness and reach.
7.
More must be done to hold donors, countries, and agencies accountable for meeting their commitments to improve nutrition.
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Stakeholders should work to develop, pilot, and evaluate new accountability mechanisms. Civil society efforts to increase accountability need support.
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We need to develop targets or norms for spending on nutrition.
8.
Tracking spending on nutrition is currently challenging, making it difficult to hold responsible parties accountable.
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Efforts to track financial resources need to be intensified—for all nutrition stakeholders.
9.
Nutrition needs a data revolution.
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Of the many information gaps, the ones that most need to be filled are those that constrain priority action and impede accountability.
10.
National nutrition champions need to be recognized, supported, and expanded in number.
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We must fill frontline vacancies, support nutrition leadership programs, and design country-led research programs.

Complete Report:
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/gnr14.pdf