53 posts categorized "Maternal and Child Nutrition"

Photo: Laura Sheahen / Catholic Relief Services 

The most important period in human development is the 1,000 days between pregnancy and age 2. Healthy development, particularly brain development, depends on getting enough nutritious food during this window.

Bread for the World is a key advocate for good nutrition during the 1,000 Days. From coordinating the Scaling Up Nutrition / 1,000 Days Civil Society Meeting with Concern Worldwide to launching Women of Faith for the 1,000 Days Movement, Bread is leading the movement to ensure that all children under age 2 have access to the right nutrients to live healthy, productive lives.

What exactly is this 1,000-day window of opportunity? This is how Bread for the World Institute explains it in the 2012 Hunger Report:

The U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) treat hunger and poverty as interdependent problems. The first MDG — dramatically reducing hunger and poverty — measures progress against hunger by gauging how many children remain chronically undernourished.

“Hunger” seems like a simpler concept than “undernutrition,” but it’s most accurate to say that it’s the effects of undernutrition that kill children or limit their potential for the rest of their lives.

Young children need calories to grow and gain weight, but vitamins and minerals matter every bit as much. In developing countries, one-third of all children are stunted or underweight as a result of undernutrition; it is the leading cause of child mortality. Reducing the high rate of undernutrition among children in the developing world is one of the greatest challenges in global health.

The most critical period in human development is the 1,000 days starting at pregnancy and lasting through a child’s second year. Healthy development, particularly brain development, depends on getting the right foods at this critical time. Hunger during this time is catastrophic, because the resulting physical and cognitive damage is lifelong and irreversible.

Early hunger and malnutrition is associated with later problems such as chronic illness and poor school attendance and learning. As adults, the survivors have lower productivity and lifetime incomes, which costs developing countries an estimated 2 to 3 percent of their economic output (Gross Domestic Product).

Until recently, international development programs did not focus much attention on improving the nutritional status of young children. But that has changed since 2008, when a series of reports on early childhood appeared in the leading medical journal The Lancet. The series emphasized the connection between nutrition during the critical 1,000-day window and development outcomes, and showed how practical, inexpensive interventions during this “window of opportunity” can dramatically alter the arc of a person’s life.

The Lancet series appeared at the height of a global hunger crisis driven by dramatic spikes in the prices of staple foods, which forced an additional 100 million people into hunger and led to rioting in a number of countries. In the aftermath, the United Nations formed a High-Level Task Force on Global Food Security. In addition, representatives of the governments and civil societies of dozens of countries came together to prepare a framework for nutrition action based on The Lancet reports. From this effort came the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement to support the action plan.

During a U.N. summit on the MDGs in September 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Irish counterpart launched the “1,000 Days: Change a Life, Change the Future” initiative. 1,000 Days and SUN seek to make nutrition an integral component of development programs. SUN’s plan for accomplishing this has been endorsed by national governments, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and other international development banks, civil society organizations, development agencies, academics, and philanthropic bodies. During the U.N. event, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, and Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide, committed to convening a follow-up meeting of SUN. This meeting was held June 13, 2011, in Washington, DC, and drew government and civil society representatives from both SUN countries and developed countries. Bread for the World and Concern Worldwide continue to be instrumental in keeping policymakers focused on SUN and the critical importance of the 1,000-day window of opportunity between pregnancy and age 2.

₊Read more from the 2012 Hunger Report’s Chapter 4, Rebalancing Globally.

Kate Hagen is Hunger Report project assistant at Bread for the World Institute.

Human growth and cognitive development depend on getting the right foods in early childhood. Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl for Bread for the World.

Today, January 26, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, features a series of events on food security and nutrition. Every year, the Forum brings together  global decision makers, country leaders, economic innovators, and representatives of some of the world’s most influential organizations to seek effective solutions to pressing global problems.

Events today highlight the important role of partnerships in ensuring good nutrition during the 1,000-day "window of opportunity" between pregnancy and a child's second birthday. The Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement supports countries in improving nutrition during the 1,000 Days.

SUN's press release notes: “The fact that nutrition is being highlighted as an essential issue at the World Economic Forum is an example of the SUN Movement’s inclusive approach, which recognizes that a range of sector and partners have a role to play in scaling up nutrition….

"Professionals from agriculture, social protection, and education are combining forces as they increasingly see good nutrition as an important part of their programs and an indicator of their success.”

In his piece yesterday in the Huffington Post, Dr. David Nabarro,the U.N. Secretary General's Special Representative for Food Security and Nutrition, says: "The world will be changed forever if every child is well-nourished during their 1,000-day window of opportunity.

"Those of us working to further the SUN movement and our many partners around the world have seen the great potential nutrition has to give children a stronger start at life.

"Now, we are excited that leaders at Davos see an investment in nutrition during those 1,000 days as a tangible -- and achievable -- contribution to a stronger, more stable world for all."

Next week, February 1-2, Bread for the World will host Church Leaders for 1,000 Days, an ecumenical gathering to build the advocacy voice of the church for maternal and child nutrition. For more information, visit www.bread.org/womenoffaith1000days. 

Michele Learner is associate editor for Bread for the World Institute.

Did you know that over the past decade (2001- 2010), six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies were in Africa? Countries from Ghana in the west to Mozambique in the south have demonstrated consistent growth and the trend is expected to continue.  A number of factors account for this growth, including technological innovations, political stability, trade and investment. For example, according to the World Bank, malaria takes $12 billion out of Africa’s GDP every year. But thanks to more and better technology that allows for affordable treatment and mosquito-treated bed nets, death rates have fallen by 20%. Trade and investment are also on the rise- in 2010, total foreign direct investment was more than $55 billion—five times what it was a decade earlier, and much more than Africa receives in aid.

So it makes perfect sense that Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, hosted an Opportunity: Africa conference last week. The event, held in Wilmington, DE, on January 18, connected Delaware residents with some of the nation’s leading authorities on sustainable development and trade with Africa. Bread for the World and other participants examined how businesses, faith communities, and individuals in the state can benefit from engagement with Africa.

The conference reflected Sen. Coon’s own commitment to improving the lives of people around the world – a commitment inspired by an early experience studying abroad in Kenya. For example, he is a leading advocate for malaria prevention and serves as co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Working Group on Malaria.

The Africa of today offers good opportunities for U.S. investment. In his welcome address, Coons said: “Whether it is businesses taking advantage of fast-growing new markets, local faith-based organizations engaging in humanitarian work, or individuals interested in promoting development, Delawareans have shown themselves to be extraordinarily interested in engaging in Africa. I organized this conference to help them do that and to help make sure Delawareans have the information and resources they need to connect with tremendous opportunities for engagement afforded by the continent."

In his keynote address, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah noted: “Robust growth rates, a new commitment to health and agriculture, and significant advances in science and technology are creating new opportunities in development on the African continent.”

Administrator Shah argued that these gains should be supported and sustained by a U.S. commitment to long-term investments. Making resources available through well-planned programs such as Feed the Future will enable African countries to develop their agricultural infrastructure in sustainable ways and diversify their economies. Feed the Future aims to free 18 million people, more than 7 million of them children, from poverty and malnutrition. The 1,000 Days initiative takes advantage of a unique window of opportunity – the 1,000 days between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday – to create a healthier future for an entire generation. This is because the right nutrition during this period is critical to a child’s ability to grow, learn, and ultimately rise out of poverty.

Faustine Wabwire is foreign assistance policy analyst at Bread for the World Institute.

The 2012 Hunger Report executive summary is Bread for the World Institute’s overview of the state of hunger.

Tomorrow night, President Obama will deliver his 2012 State of the Union address, laying out his national priorities based on current conditions in the United States.

Will he discuss the 15 percent of Americans who wonder whether they will have enough to eat this month? Will he say it’s a top priority to make sure that no child goes to bed hungry?

2012 is a particularly important year for hungry people in the United States because Congress is scheduled to reauthorize the farm bill, which will define U.S. farm policies for the next five years. The bill shows exactly how much our country values nutritious food for all as a goal of our farm policies.

Bread for the World Institute’s 2012 Hunger Report recommends effective ways for the U.S. government to respond to the agriculture and nutrition challenges of 2012 and beyond. Read an excerpt from the executive summary of the 2012 Hunger Report: Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies to learn what we hope President Obama will say in the 2012 State of the Union:

The global agricultural system faces many daunting challenges. Seven billion people currently inhabit the Earth, and the population is expected to rise to 9 billion by 2050. Food production must increase as climate change puts additional stress on natural resources. Nearly one billion people around the world suffer from hunger, and in the United States one in four people participate in a federal nutrition program. U.S. food and farm policies absolutely need to be aligned.

The 2012 Hunger Report recommends ways for the federal government to better respond to the agriculture and nutrition challenges of today and tomorrow. Normally change in food and farm policy occurs incrementally. The 2012 Hunger Report calls for bolder, more determined thinking about how U.S. food and farm policies can meet the global and domestic challenges of the 21st century.

Farm policies should significantly increase production of healthy foods. But farm policies alone can’t automatically improve access to nutritious foods for low-income families. Strengthening the nutrition safety net is also critical. Nutrition programs need to do more than provide food for hungry people; they must ensure that healthy food is available to all.

The 2012 Hunger Report recommends ways for U.S. development assistance and food aid programs to work together more efficiently. Food aid programs should follow the lead of Feed the Future—the new U.S. Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative—by focusing more deliberately on improving nutrition outcomes for the most vulnerable people, especially pregnant and lactating women and children under the age of 2. This will help achieve the strongest possible nutrition outcomes with the limited resources available.

On the eve of 2012, Congress is negotiating dramatic cuts in the federal budget. Cuts to programs designed to overcome the effects of poverty are in neither the short- nor the long-term interests of the nation. The recommendations in the2012 Hunger Report are all the more relevant because the budget decisions are so urgent.

+To read more, download the executive summary of the 2012 Hunger Report: Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policy.

Kate Hagen is Hunger Report project assistant at Bread for the World Institute.

Improving nutrition among children is essential to the future of the United States. Unfortunately, childhood hunger and poor nutrition is not among the frequently-discussed issues of this primary season. 

Before the “First in the South” primary – South Carolina’s on January 21-- the candidates would do well to read the 2012 Hunger Report to hear about childhood hunger from South Carolina resident and public health expert Ed Frongillo:

“The idea that children are somehow protected from food insecurity by parents is a myth,” says Frongillo, professor of public health at the University of South Carolina. “Children are aware of the inadequate quantity or quality of food, the struggles that adults are going through to meet food needs, and the limitations of resources for meeting those needs.” 

The effects of multiple hardships on children have been well documented by Frongillo, Chilton and her colleagues at Children’s HealthWatch, and researchers elsewhere—and portrayed more bluntly in the images and words of Witnesses to Hunger. Violence, evictions, parental anxiety rising to crescendo as the month comes to an end and the refrigerator empties—the list goes on.

There is only so much any one program can do to soften the effects of these problems on children. But an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that SNAP lifts more families with children out of poverty than any other assistance program except the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). About half of all Americans will receive SNAP benefits at some point before age 20. Among African-Americans, the figure is 90 percent.

The EITC offers a tax refund, a lump sum payment that comes once a year and is ideal for paying down debt, fixing a busted car, dealing with a lingering medical problem, or other such expenses. Low-income working families find it difficult or impossible to budget for these items, because all their resources are simply consumed by day-to-day needs.

SNAP and other nutrition programs, on the other hand, come through for low-income families all year long. They also help the many people who have short-lived scrapes with hunger without experiencing the other hardships of poverty. This is why programs such as SNAP are so vital to meeting the needs of all families, regardless of the harshness of their environment.

Good nutrition is essential, while hunger and malnutrition before age 2 cause harm that is generally irreversible. In addition to providing foods needed for a healthy pregnancy and early childhood, WIC includes nutrition education and access to health care. The program has been proven to reduce rates of fetal mortality and low birth weight and to enhance the nutritional quality of a baby’s diet.

A landmark study in 1991 showed that every dollar spent on WIC saves the government between $1.77 and $3.13 in Medicaid costs for newborns and their mothers. The findings in the study and the strong support for the program from doctors and other medical professionals contributed to bipartisan support for steady increases in WIC funding to ensure that no family would be denied participation. But 20 years later—in spite of volumes of additional research that confirms the value of WIC—it seems that ideological differences among elected officials threaten funding for a cost-effective program with broad public support (94 percent in a 2010 study).

Cutting WIC, SNAP, and other nutrition programs goes against everything we know about the value of preventive care in saving on long-term healthcare costs.

Nutrition programs are one of the most cost-effective ways to control rising healthcare costs, which in the long run are a much greater threat to the nation’s economy than the cost of nutrition programs. Hunger makes people more vulnerable to chronic health problems. Intermittent hunger also contributes to binge eating and overeating to cope with stress and depression. Hunger in babies wreaks havoc on their metabolism and makes them susceptible to obesity later in life. And hunger among children affects cognitive development and leads to lower academic achievement.

Read more on the issue “Women and Children First” from the 2012 Hunger Report.

+The 2012 Hunger Report is available at www.hungerreport.org.

Kate Hagen is Hunger Report project assistant at Bread for the World Institute.

A photo from the 2012 Hunger Report in Photos: Schoolchildren at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in Washington, DC, celebrate lunch after receiving Gold Award of Distinction honor through USDA’s Healthier US School Challenge. (Photo from USDA)

Welcome to the first installment of Hunger Report Mondays!

Every Monday of this new year, Bread for the World Institute will highlight an article, multimedia piece, or interactive data element from the website of the 2012 Hunger Report: Rebalancing Act: Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies. We hope that through this bite-sized format of weekly posts you’ll be able to explore the 2012 Hunger Report with us for a few minutes every week.

This week we encourage you to peruse the “2012 Hunger Report in Photos.” As Laura Elizabeth Pohl, Bread’s multimedia manager, introduces the photo compilation: “They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so we've edited together a selection of 2012 Hunger Report photographs so that you can understand the issues and ideas found in the report – but without having to read everything.”

Enjoy this visual compilation of stories and topics from the 2012 Hunger Report by clicking here.

+The 2012 Hunger Report is available at www.hungerreport.org.

Kate Hagen is Hunger Report project assistant at Bread for the World Institute.

Photo by Flickr user yeowatzup

You’ve probably read about the passing of North Korea’s longtime dictator, Kim Jong-il.  His son, Kim Jong-un, is assumed to succeed him, but not much is known about Kim Jong-un and whether he will continue his father’s legacy of dictatorship, suppressing the economy, and repressing human rights.  As we read the reports this week on the country’s political, economic, and military situation, let’s not forget that North Korea has one of the world’s highest rates of hunger and malnutrition.

In April 2011, the World Food Program (WFP) launched an emergency food aid program in North Korea aimed primarily at women and children following a brutal winter in which traditional food supplies and commercial imports fell short. At that time it was estimated that 3.5 million people were critically short on food because the North Korean government’s Public Distribution System (PDS) stocks were nearly zero. By June 2011, individual cereal rations being distributed were only about 150 grams per day – about a quarter pound.  Can you imagine living on just a bowl of cereal per day?

Overall, malnutrition rates among children in North Korea have gone down over the past 10 years, but one in every three children in the country remains chronically malnourished or “stunted,” meaning they are too short for their age. Furthermore, a quarter of all pregnant and breast-feeding women in North Korea are also malnourished.  North Korean food security experts have determined that even small shock in future food stores could trigger a severe crisis that would be difficult to contain.

The WFP reports current rations provided by the North Korean government meet well less than half of the daily calorific needs for the 68 percent of the 16 million people receiving public food rations through the PDS. People are struggling to find food by alternative means, but they lack purchasing power because of poor economic conditions in a country that remains one of the most isolated in the world.  A major crop and food security assessment mission was undertaken in October 2011.  The results are expected to show that North Korea remains one of the most food-deficit countries in the world.

As news reports continue to focus on North Korea’s political instability, it’s imperative for us to remember the persistent hunger crisis in North Korea and the people’s inability to fight for their right to adequate food for their children. 

Scott Bleggi is senior international policy analyst at Bread for the World Institute.

Photo by Paul Alberghine, USDA/FAS

The USDA announced that it is investing $8.5 million in six organizations to research, produce, and field-test new or improved micronutrient-fortified food aid products in six countries: Cambodia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Mozambique and Tanzania. The awards were made on the basis of proposals submitted under the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program.

The new products being developed are designed to meet the energy and nutrition needs of women, infants, and school-age children. Through this effort, USDA will identify products that can be programmed on a larger scale to address specific nutritional deficiencies among these groups. The McGovern-Dole Program helps low-income, food-deficit countries that are committed to universal education. It provides food donations, financial and technical assistance for school feeding, and maternal and child nutrition projects.

The awards were made under the Micronutrient-Fortified Food Aid Pilot Program. One previous award was made in 2010 for a company to test its ready-to-use, fortified dairy protein paste in a population of 4,000. The new or improved products include fortified rice, a lipid-based nutrient spread, a poultry-based fortified spread, a soy-fortified pudding, and a sorghum-cowpea fortified blended food.

This last product will be developed by Kansas State University, which is also developing other blended fortified food aid products recommended in Tufts University’s Food Aid Quality Review, prepared for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Among these are Corn Soy Blend 14 (CSB-14), which includes a component of whey protein, and Sorghum Soy Blend. The cowpea fortified food product is especially promising, since cowpeas are grown throughout Africa and if local products can be used, food aid program costs will be greatly reduced.

The United States is showing strong leadership in Maternal and Child Nutrition issues through its research and development efforts in these products. Food for Education complements the 1,000 Days partnership and the global Scaling Up Nutrition movement, which support nutrition early in life -- when it makes the most significant improvements in cognition, growth, and lifelong health.

Scott Bleggi is a senior international policy analyst with Bread for the World Institute.

Two successive droughts in the Horn of Africa have left both farmers and pastoralists unable to produce food for their families. Photo United Nations/Albert Gonzalez Farran.

Durban, South Africa, is currently hosting 30,000 delegates from all over the world, gathered for 12 days of talks organized under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In one sense, of course, climate change affects everyone since we all live on this planet. But in another sense, it is poor people in developing countries who are suffering most of its effects -- even though they contribute the least to the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.

As Dr. Kumi Naidoo, international  executive director of Greenpeace, said at the Durban conference, “We are living in a global state of environmental apartheid. Separated along the lines of rich and poor, the rich consume as they please and the poor suffer from their consumption.”

"Environmental apartheid." Dr. Naidoo was for years a leading anti-apartheid activist in his native South Africa -- this is not a comparison he would make lightly.

This year, the most severe hunger emergency in the world is in the Horn of Africa, where 13 million people are at risk and it is believed that at least 50,000 children younger than 5 have already died. The worst suffering is concentrated in Somalia and among Somali refugees who have reached Kenya or Ethiopia.

Is climate change to blame? Oxfam International examined this question in detail in its briefing paper Horn of Africa Drought: Climate Change and Future Impacts on Food Security. The short answer, in the words of the U.K. government's chief scientific adviser, is that "such events [the more frequent and more severe droughts in the Horn] have a higher probability of occurring as a result of climate change."

Oxfam, Bread for the World, and others emphasize that drought does not have to lead to famine. A host of factors collided to produce famine in Somalia -- including  drought, crop failure, widespread deaths among herd animals, continuous conflict, government neglect, deep poverty, lack of transportation infrastructure, and inequality. Other parts of the Horn also experienced the droughts and significant increases in hunger, but nowhere else did droughts lead to full-fledged famine.

It goes without saying that prompt measures to prevent further climate change must be implemented -- easier said than done, as the delegates in Durban must know. Another, even more urgent, part of the global response must be to reduce the vulnerability of poor people in poor countries who are bearing the brunt of the current phase of climate change -- the part that can no longer be prevented.

As the Institute's recently released 2012 Hunger Report points out in a section called “Sustainable, Productive Agriculture amid Climate Change," data from West Africa shows that children born in drought years are far more likely to be malnourished. Using data such as this, analysts calculate that if current trends continue,  climate change could increase child malnutrition by  20 percent by 2050.  Other recent Hunger Reports also offer insight into the connection between climate change and hunger -- and what can be done to break that connection. 

+The 2012 Hunger Report is available at www.hungerreport.org

Michele Learner is associate editor for Bread for the World Institute.

Good nutrition now will help him, and his community, for the rest of his life.Photo byLaura Elizabeth Pohl for Bread for the World.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a large international gathering of development practitioners attending the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea. The participants range from donors — new and old — to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), developing country governments, and civil society groups. The fact that Clinton is the first Secretary of State to participate in such a meeting speaks volumes about the priority accorded global development at the highest levels of the administration and about the commitment to improving the quality of U.S. development assistance. More effective development assistance is a goal in particular of two signature initiatives, Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative.

Secretary Clinton first announced that she would attend the Busan meeting in September, when she spoke at the one-year anniversary event of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, held during the High Level Meeting on Nutrition of the U.N. General Assembly. SUN, Clinton said, embodies the principles of aid effectiveness:

“This program has become, in a very short time, a model of how to implement successfully the principles that the international community affirmed at the High-Level Forums for Aid Effectiveness in Paris and Accra. Together, this community of countries, international organizations, NGOs, civil society groups, and private sector companies has already achieved meaningful benchmarks in the fight to strengthen global nutrition. From Tanzania, which has created a nutrition-specific line in its national budget and posted nutritionists in every district nationwide, [to] countries such as Guatemala, Uganda, Peru, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso, which have introduced new measures to improve financial accountability and strengthen their country’s commitment to nutrition, we are seeing the kinds of high-level reforms and political leadership needed to reach people on a broad scale.

"Now, this is an accomplishment not only for those whose lives are being saved and improved, but also for the people like us in this room who believe passionately in the critical role that nutrition must play in order to produce thriving children, families, and communities. And I think it’s also an indicator of our better understanding of what works in development and what it takes to make progress together, because through the SUN movement, we are seeing better results with country-owned leadership. When programs are coordinated and evidence-based, we get better outcomes. When results are measured transparently and are used to improve strategies, and when all parties are held accountable for delivering on their promises, we actually can see the progress being made.”

The SUN Movement is a different way of working. It is not housed in any institution or owned by any constituency. As Secretary Clinton’s remarks highlight, it is a collaborative effort with a common goal, supporting country-led and country-driven efforts. In just one year, 22 countries have expressed their intention to scale up nutrition—surpassing all expectations and underscoring the urgency of tackling undernutrition at the most effective time, during the 1,000-day window between pregnancy and age 2. Each country has developed national nutrition strategies and implementation plans.

Moving forward into the implementation phase, it is critical to continue this way of working together and to ensure that SUN countries can rely on support—both financial and technical—from the international community. This is important for the sustainability of maternal and child nutrition interventions and investments, and for building capacity for the long term. The U.S. government is supporting SUN through Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative. Food aid should also be seen as an essential component of U.S. efforts to improve global maternal and child nutrition, as Bread for the World Institute points out in our just-released 2012 Hunger Report.

+The 2012 Hunger Report is available at www.hungerreport.org

       Asma Lateef is director of Bread for the World Institute.