No Time to Waste: Tackling Malnutrition Together

By Heather Danton, USAID Advancing Nutrition Project Director

With the one year anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine, I have been reflecting on the three Cs threatening progress in mitigating hunger, food security, and undernutrition. Conflict, along with climate change and the reverberating effects of COVID-19, have created new challenges to achieving global nutrition goals. The global nutrition community is rising to meet those challenges with an unprecedented level of financial commitment to improve global nutrition—more than US $42.6 billion—pledged at the Nutrition for Growth gathering in December 2021.?

The 2022 Global Nutrition Report notes that low- and lower-middle-income countries stand out in their commitment, and we may be beginning to see the results. Kenya is one example, with under-five mortality falling from 52 percent to 41 percent. We must continue to ensure that all people have adequate nourishment and healthy diets to push the progress further, and into additional countries.??

Globally, some progress has been made towards achieving the World Health Assembly exclusive breastfeeding target, with 35 countries on course and 44 percent of infants aged 0 to 5 months worldwide exclusively breastfed. Fifty-seven countries are on course to meet the wasting reduction target. But 7 percent of children under five years of age globally are still affected by wasting.

New challenges also present new opportunities to sow the seeds of change, build upon what we know works, strengthen relationships, and renew our collective energy to work together toward solving present challenges. As USAID’s flagship multi-sectoral nutrition project, USAID Advancing Nutrition is among many global actors committed to catalyzing nutrition action at national and global levels to accelerate progress in reducing malnutrition. We serve as a convener to advance multi-sectoral solutions to complex problems while strengthening the capacity of public, private, and nongovernmental actors to improve systems for nutrition.?

Over the past year, we have steadily expanded our coverage and reach, allowing us to play an important part in strengthening health, food, and education systems and services to support children under five, women of reproductive age, and other groups vulnerable to malnutrition. A summary of our project year 4 accomplishments speaks to the diverse and robust work that both supports and informs USAID’s strategic priorities for nutrition.??

In its fourth year, USAID Advancing Nutrition contributed evidence, shared learning, and strengthened capacities of a range of stakeholders in over 15 countries, with special focus on—?

• promoting healthy diets?
• addressing micronutrient malnutrition and anemia?
• improving infant and young child feeding practices through improved counseling skills of frontline health workers?
• contributing to both prevention and treatment of wasting among young children.?

Despite the progress made, the ongoing pandemic, global conflict, climate change, and new shocks will undoubtedly create new challenges.?It is essential for us to prioritize and sustain the outputs and outcomes from our efforts by strengthening nutrition governance, elevating local voices and experiences by highlighting work from countries, sharing evidence, promoting capacity strengthening and advocacy, and maximizing our reach among the global nutrition community and beyond. To achieve durable solutions, the global nutrition community must strengthen coordination and collaboration to meet our collective global nutrition goals. We will continue to convene and catalyze nutrition action in this final year of implementation by documenting and sharing important lessons, resources, and findings to further advance USAID’s nutrition priorities.?

I invite you to read a summary of our work over the past year and leave a comment to share your thoughts on how we can work together to advance nutrition in the years to come.?