A good understanding of the magnitude, severity and manifestations of malnutrition is essential to efficient action to prevent and combat malnutrition. Understanding the drivers of malnutrition in both in crises and non-crises contexts and the mechanisms at stake locally is key for to ean efficient action.
This section contains publications gathering the current knowledge about the different forms of malnutrition and their drivers.
WHO guideline on the prevention and management of wasting and nutritional oedema (acute malnutrition) in infants and children under 5 years
WHO - 2023
The 2023 guideline introduces recommendations and best practices for addressing wasting and nutritional oedema in children. The guideline encompasses support and interventions for mothers and caregivers, assistance for at-risk infants under 6 months who have not yet developed wasting, management of moderate acute malnutrition through dietary and clinical treatment, programs to prevent wasting in various contexts, and addressing psychosocial factors affecting care for vulnerable children.
Undernourished and Overlooked - A global nutrition crisis in adolescent girls and women
UNICEF - 2023
This report examines the current status, trends and inequities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age (15-49 years), and the barriers they face in accessing nutritious diets, utilizing essential nutrition services and benefiting from positive nutrition and care practices. The report’s findings reveal a lack of progress on nutrition in adolescent girls and women over the past two decades.
State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022
WFP - 2022
Despite the cessation of almost all school meal programmes worldwide when schools closed due to the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, school feeding is again one of the largest and most widespread social safety nets in the world. Disappointingly, while low-income countries have increased their domestic investment in school feeding, the reach of school meals in these countries remains 4 percent below pre-pandemic levels. The global annual investment of US$48 billion in school meal programmes creates a huge and predictable market for food, and offers an extraordinary opportunity to transform food systems and diets, and to respond proactively to the global food crisis.
Regional assessment is also available for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Global Nutrition Report
The Global Nutrition Report is the world’s leading independent assessment of the state of global nutrition. It is data-led and produced each year to cast a light on progress and challenges. The report aims to inspire governments, donors, civil society organisations, businesses and others to act to end malnutrition in all its forms. It also plays the important role of holding stakeholders to account on their commitments towards tackling poor diets and malnutrition in all its forms.
The “2022 Global Nutrition Report: Stronger commitments for greater action” depicts the worrying trends across every form of malnutrition. Despites the unprecedented level of commitments taken at the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit to improve global nutrition, the report finds out that little attention is paid to poor diets, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases or food and nutrition security. The report showcases the value of the Nutrition Accountability Framework (NAF), which has the potential to significantly improve nutrition action. It sets the baseline for monitoring nutrition actions and their impact. Crucially it serves as a call to action for all stakeholders in the global fight against malnutrition.
The 2021 Global Nutrition Report sets out progress towards the global nutrition targets, evaluates the impact of poor diets on our health and our planet, assesses the nutrition financing landscape, and provides a comprehensive overview of reporting on past Nutrition for Growth (N4G) commitments. It finds that, despite some progress, diets are not getting healthier and make increasing demands on the environment, while unacceptable levels of malnutrition persist. The high human, environmental and economic costs of continuing our current trajectory are so significant that we will pay a far higher price if we fail to act. While Covid-19 is exacerbating the problem, this report shows that it is just one part of a much bigger picture.
New Global Estimates for Hidden Hunger: Action Needed to Address Alarming Micronutrient Deficiency Levels Worldwide
A new article in The Lancet Global Health estimates that 1 in 2 preschool-aged children and 2 in 3 women of reproductive age worldwide have at least one micronutrient deficiency. Micronutrient deficiencies can have serious health and economic consequences. Coordinated actions and investments are needed to scale up cost-effective micronutrient interventions and transform food systems to improve access to nutrient rich diets.
Global report on Food Crises 2023
Social assistance programme impacts on women's and children's diets and nutritional status
2022
The study reviews the effectiveness of social assistance programmes (cash, in-kind and voucher programmes) for improving diet and nutrition outcomes among women and children.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI)
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO - 2023
The revised analysis presented in this year’s report shows that almost 3.2 billion people worldwide could not afford a healthy diet in 2020. The report assesses progress towards global nutrition targets. Globally, the prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age has declined steadily, from an estimated 33% in 2000 to 22.3% in 2022. The prevalence of wasting among children under five years of age declined from 8.7% in 2000 to 6.8% in 2022. Globally, the prevalence of overweight among children under five years of age showed a non-significant increase from 5.3% in 2000 to 5.6% in 2022.
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO - 2022
The most recent evidence available suggests that the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet around the world rose by 112 million to almost 3.1 billion, reflecting the impacts of rising consumer food prices during the pandemic.
This report highlights the intensification of major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition: conflict, climate extremes and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities.
The 2022 edition of the SOFI report analyses public support to food and agriculture and calls for repurposing it to make healthy diets less costly.
FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO - 2021
In recent years, several major drivers have put the world off track to ending world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. This report presents the first global assessment of food insecurity and malnutrition for 2020 and offers some indication of what hunger might look like by 2030 in a scenario further complicated by the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also includes new estimates of the cost and affordability of healthy diets, which provide an important link between the food security and nutrition indicators and the analysis of their trends.
Levels and trends in child malnutrition: UNICEF / WHO / World Bank Group Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates – Edition 2023
WHO - 2023
In 2022, globally, 148.1 million children under the age of 5 years of age were stunted, 45 million wasted, and 37 million overweight. Stunting has been declining steadily over the last decade, with 148.1 million, or 22.3 percent of children under age 5 worldwide affected in 2022. Nearly all children affected lived in Asia (52 percent of the global share) and Africa (43 percent of the global share). In 2022, an estimated 6.8 percent of children under 5 were affected by wasting, of which 13.6 million (2.1 percent) were suffering from severe wasting. More than three-quarters of all children with severe wasting live in Asia and another 22 percent live in Africa. Current levels of overweight have persisted for the last two decades in almost every region. There are now 37 million children under 5 living with overweight globally, an increase of nearly 4 million since 2000. The Joint Malnutrition Estimates released in 2023 reveal insufficient progress to reach the 2025 World Health Assembly (WHA) global nutrition targets and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets.
Breastfeeding
Lancet - 2023
This new Lancet series explores the marketing practices and the lobbying power of the commercial milk formula industry, acting against the protection and promotion of breastfeeding despite its proven benefits. The series includes three papers:
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Breastfeeding: crucially important, but increasingly challenged in a market-driven world
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Marketing of commercial milk formula: a system to capture parents, communities, science, and policy
Maternal and child undernutrition progress
LANCET - 2021
The latest Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition Progress, includes three new papers which established an evidence-based global agenda for tackling undernutrition over the past decade. The papers conclude that despite modest progress in some areas, maternal and child undernutrition remains a major global health concern, particularly as recent gains may be offset by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Revisiting maternal and child undernutrition in low-income and middle-income countries: variable progress towards an unfinished agenda
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Mobilising evidence, data, and resources to achieve global maternal and child undernutrition targets and the Sustainable Development Goals: an agenda for action
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Effective interventions to address maternal and child malnutrition: an update of the evidence
The Double Burden of Malnutrition
LANCET - 2021
The double burden of malnutrition is the coexistence of overnutrition (overweight and obesity) alongside undernutrition (stunting and wasting). This four paper Series explores how this coexistence is affecting low-income and middle-income countries. In addition to policy recommendations, the Series includes a focus on both historical and biological contexts, and new economic analysis.
The COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate maternal and child undernutrition and child mortality in low- and middle-income countries
2021
This paper develops pessimistic, moderate and optimistic scenarios for 2020–2022 and used three modelling tools to estimate the impacts of pandemic-induced disruptions on child stunting, wasting and mortality, maternal anaemia and children born to women with a low body mass index in 118 LMICs.
Food systems and nutrition - Handbook for parliamentarians N°32
2021
This handbook is addressed to Parliamentarians to support them in adopting domestic legislation, approving budget allocations, and overseeing public-sector policies towards transforming food systems that deliver healthy diets for all.
Nutrition and food systems
HLPE - 2017
This report analyses how food systems influence people’s dietary patterns and nutritional outcomes and identifies effective policies and programmes that have the potential to shape sustainable food systems and contribute to improved nutrition. It highlights promising interventions to reduce the multiple burdens of malnutrition at different points of the food systems: cross the supply chain, within food environments and related to consumer behaviour.
| Originally Published | Last Updated | 11 Apr 2019 | 13 Sep 2023 |
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