Hidden Hunger: Strategies to Improve Nutrition Quality. Группа авторов. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Группа авторов
Издательство: Ingram
Серия: World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics
Жанр произведения: Медицина
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9783318062533
Скачать книгу
href="#ulink_78c10deb-4727-5a8f-9254-f50519297f38">1].

      Not only growth, but also good governance is positively correlated with the reduction of undernutrition. Indicators for good governance1 plotted against the reduction in the GHI suggest that the nutritional status and prevalence of hunger benefit from a safe and accountable policy environment as well as responsible and corruption-free leadership.

      •Assigning top-level managerial responsibility and oversight to undernutrition.

      •Explicitly committing to tackling micronutrient deficiencies in developing countries through targeted fortification of products.

      •Reporting on engagement with governments in developing countries on undernutrition.”

      The report shows that the world’s top food and beverage companies have taken some steps towards improving consumers’ diets. However, many of the companies are still lagging behind and overall greater efforts are required.

      1 Three sets of factors shape enabling environments for nutrition: knowledge and evidence, politics and governance, and capacity and resources.

      2 Leadership for nutrition is fundamentally important for results.

      The private sector has substantial potential to contribute to improvements in nutrition, but there is scarcity of credible evidence and trust.

      4 Operational research of delivery, implementation, and the scaling of interventions, and contextual analysis is essential.

Img

      5 Systematic political economy analysis should be embedded with identification of potentially improved roles of stakeholders to avoid disappointments with public-private and NGO-private partnerships.

      The Principal Challenge of Mapping Nutrition Goals and Instruments

      The reduction of hunger and improvement of nutrition remain key policy goals in international policy. This is reflected in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The “Zero Hunger” goal No. 2 of the SDGs explicitly deals with ending the problem of hunger and all forms of malnutrition, which include hidden hunger, by 2030. The international political leaders commit to providing universal access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food, in particular for the poor and people in vulnerable situations. Furthermore, virtually all other SDGs relate to nutrition directly or indirectly as well. However, there are trade-offs between specific policy goals that have to be taken into consideration.

Img

      The multi-dimensional character of nutrition challenges requires the deployment of a combination of multiple instruments and policy actions. This means that complex problems related for instance to income, food access, and micronutrient deficiencies require context specific combinations of interventions. Better nutrition policy therefore implies more coordination in policy making across different policy domains and innovative approaches, such as the combination of conditional cash transfers, employment guarantees, fortification, sanitation programs, small farm productivity programs, or mother and child focused nutrition interventions.

      Economic and Political Innovations for Better Nutrition

      Even in a rather aggregate framework such as presented here, at least 6 critical linkages need consideration when addressing hunger and malnutrition (see arrows in Fig. 2). Overarching and surrounding are environmental as well as macroeconomic framework conditions. Related linkages exist at large or even global scale, such as greenhouse gas emissions through land use change, and at local scale, such as water and sanitation in the context of irrigated agriculture and waste disposal. All the links operate with diverse dynamics under short- or long-term time lags, which require attention in policies and programs. Structural problems, such as access to markets and resources including land, have to be considered and there are risks affecting the resilience of poor people and low-income countries, often eroding societal cohesion. Furthermore, a multitude of drivers far beyond agriculture can shape food security in positive or risky ways, for example, bio-energy systems, financial markets integrated with food commodity markets, novel non-land-based foods, and more. Priorities in targeting nutritional problems can be identified from this framework. Targets for economic and political innovations are to

      1 Increase investment in food and nutrition research and development (R&D),

      2 Provide more innovative social protection, transfer, and nutrition enhancement programs,

      3 Strengthen communities’ own innovation capacities, including for improved health, sanitation, and water environment, and

      4 Improve nutrition in complex emergencies.