"No country is spared": World nutrition report highlights increased malnutrition

WASHINGTON – All countries in the world are struggling with malnutrition and many countries are now combining different forms of stunting, wasting, anemia and obesity, according to the report. "World Nutrition Report 2018".

Stunting in children, anemia in women of childbearing age and overweight among women were examined in 141 countries with consistent data on these indicators of malnutrition. The results show that 88% (124 countries) have high levels of at least two different types of malnutrition, while 29% have high levels of all three.

"The global burden is unacceptable. This is not new information in the sense that we say it every year since 2014, "said Corinna Hawkes, co-author of the report, during a conference call. "It's not just that we're seeing different forms of malnutrition, it's that all the countries of the world are affected. This problem does not only concern the poorest countries in the world. This concerns everyone. When you start collecting all these different forms of malnutrition, whatever your wealth, each country has a problem. "

According to the report, written by an independent group of academics, researchers and UN experts, 15.95 million people suffer from wasting and stunting and 8.23 ​​million stunted and overweight . The report aims to draw attention to current gaps in nutrition progress and to identify ways to fill them.

According to the report, eight key nutrition indicators do not meet the targets: high blood pressure in adults, obesity in adults, overweight in adults, anemia, stunting in children, wasting in children, overweight in children and salt intake.

Stunting in children under 5 is declining worldwide, but in Africa it has gone from 38.3% in 2000 to 30.3% in 2017, but the actual number of children stunting is higher due to the continent's population growth. Percentages in Asia and Latin America decreased.

The protracted conflict situations around the world also hinder progress in nutrition. Humanitarians working in such settings need to adapt their nutritional approach to long-term nutritional resilience, knowing that some people may be living in civil war or in other troubled times for several years, the report said.

Moreover, the figures show that without a significant reversal of current trends, the world will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 2 to eradicate hunger by 2030, nor the global goals of the world. of the World Health Organization by 2025.

The report finds that no country is on track to reach the nine goals of WHO, while only five countries are on track to reach four, the largest number for which no country is on the right track. One hundred countries are not about to meet any.

There is also a significant funding gap, although donors have met and exceeded the 2013 Nutrition for Growth Summit target two years ahead of schedule. The report says, however, that total aid provided by donors remains low, preventing countries that have developed nutrition-specific policies and targets from being able to implement them.

Diet issues

For the first time, the report highlighted the importance of food in the fight against malnutrition.

Governments have a special role to play here, said Hawkes, citing examples such as Mexico's imposition of a sugar tax to reduce soda consumption in an area where 59 percent of children drink alcohol. soda every day.

Hawkes said that the children's diet "is in a deplorable state", with less than a fifth of them having an unpalatable diet and over 51% not taking the minimum recommended number of meals .

"If we do not focus on the diet, we will not be able to do it," said Hawkes, who also co-chaired the independent panel of the Global Nutrition Report.

"Adults who do not eat healthy foods lose years of life and contribute to food being one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, with 18.8% of deaths a poor diet. These regimes are therefore crucial from the point of view of noncommunicable diseases and obesity, but they are also crucial for those at risk of malnutrition. "

Obesity and diabetes have made little progress as these challenges are relatively new in the nutrition landscape and have therefore received less attention from governments, Hawkes said. Overweight, defined as a person with a body mbad index greater than or equal to 25, and obesity, a person with a BMI equal to or greater than 30, have been increasing every year since 200. More women (15.1 %) are obese than men (11.1%). ).

The combination of traditional forms of malnutrition, such as stunting and obesity and diabetes, is one of the reasons why the report recommends that a new approach be adopted to improve the health of children. The whole landscape of nutrition.

"We need to think about nutrition in a holistic way rather than these different issues," Hawkes said. "We need to eliminate silos and develop comprehensive programs to combat all forms of malnutrition. For too long, countries, donors and community initiatives have focused on one form of malnutrition. We must have actions that are really designed to combat the forms of malnutrition that exist in this community and that may overlap in individual households. "

The report found that while progress is not on track to meet targets, the world now has more nutrition data than ever before, which can be used to address the remaining challenges. This information, especially geospatial data, needs to be developed and exploited to change course, Hawkes said, because each country is different and requires a specialized strategy.

"Why are not things better when we know much more than before? This is an issue we are often faced with, "Hawkes said. "Data collection can be costly and requires investment, but it also needs to be communicated to the right people for the decision makers to have the data."