Reducing Child Undernutrition: Past Drivers and Priorities for the Post-MDG Era. World Development, Volume 68, April 2015, Pages 180–204.
Authors: Lisa C. Smith, Lawrence Haddad
As the post-MDG era approaches in 2016, reducing child undernutrition is gaining high priority on the international development agenda, both as a maker and marker of development. Revisiting Smith and Haddad (2000), we use data from 1970 to 2012 for 116 countries, finding that safe water access, sanitation, women’s education, gender equality, and the quantity and quality of food available in countries have been key drivers of past reductions in stunting. Income growth and governance played essential facilitating roles. Complementary to nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs and policies, accelerating reductions in undernutrition in the future will require increased investment in these priority areas.
Policy priorities for the post-MDG era
Our analysis gives clear guidance to governments and international development agencies regarding which determinants of child undernutrition should be considered in policy strategies to accelerate reductions in undernutrition in the coming decades. Such strategies should focus on:
• Improving health environments through increasing access to safe water and sanitation. This goal is most likely also achieved with increased access to health care (although we could not evaluate this aspect of health environments here due to data limitations);
• Improving the quality of caring practices for children through increasing women’s education and promoting gender equality, including women’s empowerment; and
• Increasing food security by ensuring adequate availability of food at the national level and sufficient nutritional quality of that food. While not explored here, actions to ensure that the available food can be accessed by those who need it would surely be helpful as well.
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