Child Malnutrition: An Overview of Trends, Issues, and Policy Prescriptions

Child malnutrition is the most neglected form of human deprivation and is one important cause of more than half of all child deaths worldwide. For nearly half of the 2.2 billion children in the world, childhood is starkly and brutally different from what we all aspire. With the childhood of so many under threat, our collective future is compromised damaging the children and the nations. The cost of hunger is extremely high, costing the poor countries up to 3 per cent of their yearly GDP. Improving nutrition could add 2 to 3 per cent a year to a poor nation's GDP. Only if we move closer to realizing the rights of all children will we move closer to our goals of development and peace. The optimistic scenario projects Latin America as completely eliminating child malnutrition, West Asia and North Africa experiencing a decline to 1 million malnourished children, and China reducing the number of malnourished children to 3 million in 2020. The progress in the optimistic scenario is significant, yet, 94 million children would be malnourished by 2020. The pessimistic scenario reveals devastating results. Under all the scenarios, South Asia will continue to be the region with the highest prevalence and number. South Asia is also the only region in which girls are more likely to be underweight than boys.There will be very little progress in reducing the prevalence of child malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Unless action is taken within the first two years of a child's life to improve nutrition, the children will suffer irreparable damage. Given the magnitude of the problem and its consequences for economic development, there is a need for immediate and large-scale action. Significant reduction in child malnutrition is possible but will require renewed efforts from various quarters. The world must alter its priorities so that the problem of child malnutrition is placed at the centre stage. A concerted effort to eliminate childhood malnutrition would require policy reform and more public investment producing dramatic long-term gains in income growth, agricultural productivity, and social indicators. Understanding the plight of excluded and invisible children and the factors behind their marginalization, efforts to focus initiatives on these children must form an integral part of national strategies on child rights and development such as: child-focused budgets capacity building encouraging children to participate. If national capacities are not built up and processes are not driven by national governments and local communities, even those interventions that are initially successful risk failure when international assistance diminishes or political priorities change.