Access to fortified foods for infants and young children can be difficult, especially for low-income families. Having worked in different civil society organisations, I see how powerful the partnerships the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has with the market-based actors. Through public-private engagements, we work to increase the access to and create the demand for nutritious food for caregivers to give to their children. Placing extra attention on affordability makes my work extra meaningful.
On Sunday 10 November, staff members from GAIN Indonesia received awards from the Surabaya City Mayor for their significant contributions in improving child and maternal nutrition in the city. Despite being the second-largest city in Indonesia with a rapid economic growth of 6% in 2018, Surabaya is not free from malnutrition. As much as 27% of children under five are stunted.
A critical element to improve children’s health and reduce child malnutrition is changing behaviours and practices around maternal and infant nutrition. In Indonesia, mothers are generally aware that exclusive breastfeeding for six months is best for their child, and that they should continue to breastfeed for a further eighteen months with complementary foods.
Every year UNICEF issues an authoritative review called the “State of the World’s Children”. GAIN is proud to have worked closely with UNICEF on its 2019 report issued in London yesterday. The focus of this year’s report is on nutrition and diets. The State of the World’s Children last addressed malnutrition 20 years ago, and much has changed since then.
This week is World Breastfeeding Week, honouring one of the most effective and cost-effective nutrition interventions around: human breastmilk contains all the nutrients needed for young infants, conveying health benefits for both babies and mothers.
Animal-source foods (ASFs) are controversial, political and personal. What is the evidence for their role in human health? The environment? This blog is based on a conference hosted by the University of California, Davis, titled "Aligning the Food System for Improved Nutrition in Animal-Source Foods" and aims to offer a window into recent scientific research and thinking.
5000 adolescent girls – known as the "Golden Girls" – assembled on 19 December 2017 in the Sultana Kamal Mohila Complex, Dhaka, to celebrate the launch of the national "Adolescent Nutrition Campaign". For the Golden Girls – and many more adolescent girls in the country – this campaign represents a window of opportunity to push further the development of Bangladesh.
Babies are the nutritionist’s biggest challenge. Their rapidly developing minds and bodies need large doses of nutrients, yet their stomachs are small and unable to hold much of anything. This is why nutritionists have worked for decades on the development of special foods for low-income settings, including both fortified porridges and fortified products in powder or paste form which can be added to standard family foods.
Osgood-Zimmerman and colleagues just published an article in Nature that, for the first time, provides high-resolution maps of child growth failure (stunting, wasting, and underweight) across Africa. They mapped data from over 1 million children from 51 countries at a 5×5 km resolution as well as at the largest administrative subdivision from 2000 to 2015.
The consistent evidence that childhood stunting is associated with poor child development and school performance and health and human capital development more generally has elevated nutrition in the development agenda. The result has been an unprecedented focus on addressing stunting and some renewed development resources focused on doing so.
