The world is facing an acute malnutrition burden that is costing countries precious human capital and weakening the foundation of economic development and resilience. The CSIS Global Health Policy Centre released a primer in March 2019, highlighting nutrition policy as the untapped path to global health, economic growth and human security.
According to the primer, nutrition is the foundation for children that enables them to reach their full potential. Also, a nutrition policy can be one of the most cost-effective public health approaches that delivers a return of $16, for every $1 invested (IFPRI 2014). The primer pegs the worldwide costs of malnutrition at $3.5 trillion annually (FAO 2013).
Quoting data extracted from the 2018 Global Nutrition Report, the primer highlights that one in three people experience one form of malnutrition at a minimum, two forms of malnutrition persist in 88% countries and 29% countries suffer from all three forms i.e. undernutrition, overnutrition and micronutrient deficiency. These result in hampered cognitive development of children, stunting, wasting and greater risks of non-communicable diseases. It also reiterates the significance of nutrition in the first 1000 days and adolescence for lifelong sound health.
Stunting creates a massive drag on economies, by severely impacting the brain development and productivity of people. 71% of all stunted children under the age of five are living in either Southeast Asia or Africa. With the global workforce transitioning towards less physical labour and more employment of technology, the future prosperity of countries is increasingly dependent upon the health and education of their workforce. By reducing “grey matter infrastructure,” stunting contributes towards cyclical poverty as well.
According to Jim Yong Kim, Former President, World Bank Group “when malnutrition strikes children in the first five years of their lives, it permanently stunts their bodies, their minds and their potential to fully contribute to their country’s economy” (August 2014). Overall, undernutrition can cause a loss of 11% in gross domestic product (FAO 2018).
The primer asserts that lack of nutrition continues to be a key contributor towards political instability and conflict, since it is a primary factor of food security. The acute levels of undernutrition and food insecurity are both, cause and consequence of conflicts, affecting human security. Conflicts are a cause of destruction of agricultural infrastructure and healthcare resources, leading to increasing burden of diseases, lack of food security and increasing migration of refugees. Countries suffering from food insecurity coupled with armed conflict have the highest levels of outward migration of refugees. For instance, the Venezuelan economic crisis resulted in a severe food crisis and 90% of the migrants to Colombia cited lack of food as the main reason for migration.
The issue of nutrition did not gain momentum as a global priority until 2008, when the spike in food prices resulted in the establishment of a High-Level Task Force on Food and Nutrition Security by the UN Secretary-General. In 2012, the World Health Assembly had called for global action towards six nutrition targets. An additional $70 billion is required over a period of 10 years to achieve just four of these targets i.e. (stunting, anemia, exclusive breastfeeding, and wasting), to prevent 3.7 million child deaths, 265 million cases of anemia in women, and 65 million cases of stunting.
Government, civil society, donors, academia and multilateral organisations started focusing upon nutrition. The issue of nutrition has become a visible global concern however, it remains severely under-financed. Moreover, optimal nutrition is difficult to obtain and sustain, given the multi-dimensional interrelationships between diets, disease and prevalent food systems.
Nutrition interventions are critical, low-cost and highly effective, with far-reaching effects in itself, but also, in the form of supplementary input towards the success of other health interventions such as those that target maternal, newborn and child health as well as the burden of infectious disease.Appropriate and adequate global nutrition investment can yield tremendous value with beneficial spillover effects across other development sectors, to potentially unlock the opportunities for the most vulnerable and marginalised sections of society.
India Outbound
April 3, 2019
source https://indiaoutbound.org/the-significance-of-global-nutrition-investment/
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