2014 Global Nutrition Report

"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, this report, which was produced by a consortium of nations, organisations, researchers, and academics, intends to provide civil society organisations (CSOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donors, governments, the business sector, researchers, the media, and engaged citizens with evidence of the current scale of malnutrition and the measures being taken to combat it, as well as highlighting what more needs to be done. It serves as a call to action for governments, policymakers, NGOs, and other stakeholders to put malnutrition, including undernutrition and overweight, at the forefront of their agendas.

IRPRI notes that "165 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....[And yet, r]esources to specific nutrition programmes amount to a small fraction of one per cent of domestic or aid budgets."

In that light, the report provides a "dashboard of over 80 country-level indicators on nutrition outcomes, determinants, program coverage, resources, and political commitments for each of the United Nations' 193 member states, which they can use to hold policymakers to their commitments and urge them to make new ones." As an outcome of the 2013 Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, United Kingdom (UK), this report was a centerpiece of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) in Rome, Italy, in November 2014.

The report's data and case studies could be useful for communication practitioners' programme, research, and advocacy work. For instance, one case study describes the use of an integrated nutrition-agriculture programme called Enhanced Homestead Food Production (E-HFP) to improve nutrition in Burkina Faso by reaching out to women with children during the first 1,000 days of life. "Rather than just teaching mothers about nutrition, it modified the behavior-change communication strategy to promote adoption of key nutrition practices. It also empowered women by providing education on best agriculture and nutrition practices, transferring small agricultural assets and chickens to beneficiary women, and having village model farms led by beneficiary women (rather than male farmers living in the village)." There was also an evaluation component to this endeavour, which involved a longitudinal cluster-randomised controlled trial and two rounds of qualitative process evaluation. "Compared with people living in the control villages, children who were program beneficiaries showed increased dietary diversity and reduced prevalence of wasting, anemia, and diarrhea. Women who were program beneficiaries had increased intake of nutrient-rich foods and reduced prevalence of thinness."

To cite another example, one panel explores whether community monitoring can enhance accountability for nutrition. With references removed, here is an excerpt: "The potential of mechanisms such as social audits and community monitoring to promote accountability and to improve the provision of direct public services is clear....Further work is required in this area to find out which models work best when applied to nutrition service delivery. Such work may have the potential to combine with the growing use of information and communication technologies and mobile technology to link citizens to policy advocacy and provide real-time data on community-level indicators to national accountability mechanisms."

For more information on the report and supplemental materials including a synopsis, infographics, and data visualisations, video, and country profiles - as well as details of launch events of the report taking place around the world - please see the Global Nutrition Report website.

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 journal managed the blind external review process for the report, which 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.