162
after the Green Revolution—in short, nutrition status—is discussed in next
section.
8.3 Poverty Alleviation from a Nutrition Perspective
8.3.1 Development Strategies for Nutrition
Framing food security from the perspective of demand has changed with the recognition that previously implemented strategies failed and led to unexpected results,
as is the case with the production perspective. In this section, transition of development strategies from a nutrition perspective is overviewed first.
The MDGs made poverty and hunger alleviation as their first target, aiming “to
halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger”
(UN Millennium Project 2005). Global food production was more than enough to
feed the global population, however 14% of the world population, including children, was undernourished in 2007 (FAO 2008). Nearly nine million children under
the age of five died in 2007, and over one-third of those deaths were linked to undernutrition (FAO 2008). Consequently, it became recognized that alleviation of child
undernutrition was the most unattainable goal among the MDGs because of the
insufficient effort of the countries involved and the international community.
Under such a situation, the Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition
was launched in 2008, pointing out the urgent need to scale up the international
nutrition governance system (Horton et al. 2008). The series also highlighted the
short-term and long-term consequences of child undernutrition: child undernutrition affects not only disability, morbidity, and mortality during his/her childhood
stage but also affects body size, intellectual ability, economic productivity, reproductive performance, and cardiovascular disease risk during his/her adulthood stage
(Black et al. 2008). The final paper of this series stated that ‘the international nutrition system comprised of international and donor organizations, academia, civil
society, and the private sector–is fragmented and dysfunctional’ (Morris et al. 2008).
Provoked by this series, political commitment to child malnutrition increased
(Table 8.1).
In 2010, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) was established to tackle stunting (low
height-for-age, indicating chronic restriction of a child’s potential growth) with a
special focus on the 1000-day window of opportunity, from conception to a child’s
second birthday. The SUN movement currently has 54 member countries (Menon
et al. 2014). In 2012, WHO issued a resolution at the 65th World Health Assembly
endorsing a comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant, and young
child nutrition that specified a set of six global nutrition targets by 2025. Importantly,
one of those six targets was ‘to ensure that there is no increase in childhood overweight’, which was the first attempt to regard ‘overnutrition’ as an increasing form
of malnutrition (WHO 2012). In 2013, first Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit was
H. Matsuda et al.
after the Green Revolution—in short, nutrition status—is discussed in next
section.
8.3 Poverty Alleviation from a Nutrition Perspective
8.3.1 Development Strategies for Nutrition
Framing food security from the perspective of demand has changed with the recognition that previously implemented strategies failed and led to unexpected results,
as is the case with the production perspective. In this section, transition of development strategies from a nutrition perspective is overviewed first.
The MDGs made poverty and hunger alleviation as their first target, aiming “to
halve between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger”
(UN Millennium Project 2005). Global food production was more than enough to
feed the global population, however 14% of the world population, including children, was undernourished in 2007 (FAO 2008). Nearly nine million children under
the age of five died in 2007, and over one-third of those deaths were linked to undernutrition (FAO 2008). Consequently, it became recognized that alleviation of child
undernutrition was the most unattainable goal among the MDGs because of the
insufficient effort of the countries involved and the international community.
Under such a situation, the Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition
was launched in 2008, pointing out the urgent need to scale up the international
nutrition governance system (Horton et al. 2008). The series also highlighted the
short-term and long-term consequences of child undernutrition: child undernutrition affects not only disability, morbidity, and mortality during his/her childhood
stage but also affects body size, intellectual ability, economic productivity, reproductive performance, and cardiovascular disease risk during his/her adulthood stage
(Black et al. 2008). The final paper of this series stated that ‘the international nutrition system comprised of international and donor organizations, academia, civil
society, and the private sector–is fragmented and dysfunctional’ (Morris et al. 2008).
Provoked by this series, political commitment to child malnutrition increased
(Table 8.1).
In 2010, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) was established to tackle stunting (low
height-for-age, indicating chronic restriction of a child’s potential growth) with a
special focus on the 1000-day window of opportunity, from conception to a child’s
second birthday. The SUN movement currently has 54 member countries (Menon
et al. 2014). In 2012, WHO issued a resolution at the 65th World Health Assembly
endorsing a comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant, and young
child nutrition that specified a set of six global nutrition targets by 2025. Importantly,
one of those six targets was ‘to ensure that there is no increase in childhood overweight’, which was the first attempt to regard ‘overnutrition’ as an increasing form
of malnutrition (WHO 2012). In 2013, first Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit was
H. Matsuda et al.