The Global Nutrition Report 2014: actions and accountability to accelerate the world's progress on nutrition.
In 2013, the Nutrition for Growth Summit called for a Global Nutrition Report (GNR) to strengthen accountability in nutrition so that progress in reducing malnutrition could be accelerated. This article summarizes the results of the first GNR. By focusing on undernutrition and overweight, the GNR puts malnutrition in a new light. Nearly every country in the world is affected by malnutrition, and multiple malnutrition burdens are the "new normal." Unfortunately, the world is off track to meet the 2025 World Health Assembly (WHA) targets for nutrition. Many countries are, however, making good progress on WHA indicators, providing inspiration and guidance for others. Beyond the WHA goals, nutrition needs to be more strongly represented in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework. At present, it is only explicitly mentioned in 1 of 169 SDG targets despite the many contributions improved nutritional status will make to their attainment. To achieve improvements in nutrition status, it is vital to scale up nutrition programs. We identify bottlenecks in the scale-up of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive approaches and highlight actions to accelerate coverage and reach. Holding stakeholders to account for delivery on nutrition actions requires a well-functioning accountability infrastructure, which is lacking in nutrition. New accountability mechanisms need piloting and evaluation, financial resource flows to nutrition need to be made explicit, nutrition spending targets should be established, and some key data gaps need to be filled. For example, many UN member states cannot report on their WHA progress and those that can often rely on data >5 y old. The world can accelerate malnutrition reduction substantially, but this will require stronger accountability mechanisms to hold all stakeholders to account.
International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC; l.haddad@cgiar.org.
Lawrence
L
Haddad
University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia;
Endang
E
Achadi
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Rome, Italy;
Mohamed Ag
MA
Bendech
Women and Child Development, Odisha, India;
Arti
A
Ahuja
Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, United Kingdom;
Komal
K
Bhatia
Center for Global Child Health, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada; Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan;
Zulfiqar
Z
Bhutta
WHO, Geneva, Switzerland;
Monika
M
Blössner
WHO, Geneva, Switzerland;
Elaine
E
Borghi
University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana;
Esi
E
Colecraft
WHO, Geneva, Switzerland;
Mercedes
M
de Onis
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom;
Kamilla
K
Eriksen
Columbia University, New York, NY;
Jessica
J
Fanzo
CDC, Atlanta, GA;
Rafael
R
Flores-Ayala
Scaling Up Nutrition Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland;
Patrizia
P
Fracassi
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), Nairobi, Kenya;
Elizabeth
E
Kimani-Murage
University of Abomey Calavi, Cotonou, Benin;
Eunice
E
Nago Koukoubou
UNICEF, New York, NY;
Julia
J
Krasevec
UNICEF, New York, NY;
Holly
H
Newby
University of Washington, Seattle, WA;
Rachel
R
Nugent
Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) Alliance, Utrecht, The Netherlands;
Stineke
S
Oenema
Institute of Research for Development, Marseille, France;
Yves
Y
Martin-Prével
Development Initiatives, Bristol, United Kingdom;
Judith
J
Randel
Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland;
Jennifer
J
Requejo
Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, United Kingdom;
Tara
T
Shyam
Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand; and.
Emorn
E
Udomkesmalee
Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India.
K Srinath
KS
Reddy
D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D018673:Nutrition Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014480:United Nations; D014944:World Health Organization
SDGs; accountability; indicators; malnutrition; progress