giovanna

Nepal has made impressive gains in health and nutrition despite being in a state of political, economic and demographic transition. According to the Nepal Demographic Health Surveys, stunting in Nepal has fallen from 57% in 2001 to 41% in 2011, an annual decline of 1.7 percentage points. A 3.9% annual reduction is, however, required to achieve the global target of 40% fewer stunted children by 2025. The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in 2014 by the Central Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF indicated a further reduction in the proportion of stunted children to 37.4%.
The recently drafted Sustainable Development Goal for Nepal, 2016–2030 has outlined a daunting challenge of reducing stunting in children under 5 years of age to 1% by 2030 for the long-term health, wellbeing, human capital development and national economic growth.

Globally, nearly half of all under-five deaths annually (3 million deaths) are attributable to undernutrition, as malnutrition is associated with increased risk of morbidity and infections, which leads to mortality (Liu et al. 2015). In 2011, at least 165 million children worldwide were stunted, and 52 million were wasted, with higher prevalence in south Asia and sub- Saharan Africa. Malnutrition is not confined to children but is also rampant among women of reproductive age. This maternal malnutrition contributes to fetal growth restriction, which leads to low birthweight and increases risk of childhood infections and mortality. Children exposed to these risks early in life have a higher risk of growth faltering and stunting, which can cause long-term irreversible and detrimental cognitive, motor and health impairments (Black et al. 2013). Most of the irreversible damage due to malnutrition occurs during gestation and in the first 24 months of life, hence underscores the importance of intervening in this period. …

India has among the highest rates of child malnutrition rates in the world, but these rates have been declining rapidly during the past decade. Between 2006 and 2014, stunting rates for children under five in India have declined from 48 to 38% (Global Nutrition Report, 2014). Despite this progress, child undernutrition rates in India are among the highest in the world, with nearly one-half of all children under 3 years of age being either underweight or stunted. India is still home to over 40 million stunted children and 17 million wasted children (Global Nutrition Report, 2014). In addition, the rates of decline have been highly variable across India’s states. Some states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Delhi, had large rates of reduction in stunting, but overall levels of undernutrition remained high because of high baseline rates. Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Jharkhand the situation has not changed significantly (Raykar et al., 2015). Similar variability is observed in the prevalence of anaemia rates as well, which range from 38% in Goa to 78% in Bihar (IIPS & Macro International, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and Macro International, 2007). …

Although there has been a decline in rates of child stunting in Bangladesh, more than one-third of underfive children still suffer from impaired linear growth. Results of the demographic health surveys since 2004 show that the rate of stunting decreased by only 1.5 percentage points per year (NIPORT, Mitra and Associates & ICF International, 2015). This is not anticipated, given the impressive results the country has demonstrated in reducing infant and maternal mortality over the past two decades (NIPORT, MEASURE Evaluation, and ICDDR,B 2012). Stunting seems to be pervasive throughout the country and is very high in children in slum settlements. Poverty and lack of education are associated with stunting in Bangladesh as elsewhere; however, 21% children from households belonging to the richest wealth quintiles are also stunted. About one-third of children of literate mothers also suffer from stunting. Therefore, the aetiology of stunting is still not clear, although data from Bangladesh suggest that factors associated with the condition include poor maternal nutrition, low birthweight (LBW), severe food insecurity, inappropriate complementary feeding, poverty, illiteracy, poor sanitation, and hygiene practices (Ahmed et al, 2012; Psaki et al., 2014). There is increasing evidence that environmental enteropathy, a condition where the small intestinal mucosa is colonized and damaged by pathogenic bacteria, is one cause of malabsorption of nutrients and stunting. This happens when hygiene and sanitation practices are poor and young children are chronically exposed to bacteria in the environment. …

This paper quantifies the factors explaining long-term improvements in child height for age z-scores in Bangladesh (1996/1997–2011), India (1992/1993–2005/2006), Nepal (1997–2011) and Pakistan (1991–2013). We apply the same statistical techniques to data from a common data source from which we have extracted a set of common explanatory variables that capture ‘nutrition-sensitive’ factors. Three are particularly important in explaining height for age z-score changes over these timeframes: improvements in material well-being; increases in female education; and improvements in sanitation. These factors have comparable associations across all four countries.

South Asia is home to the largest number of stunted children worldwide: 65 million or 37% of all South Asian children under 5 were stunted in 2014. The costs to society as a result of stunting during childhood are high and include increased mortality, increased morbidity (in childhood and later as adults), decreased cognitive ability, poor educational outcomes, lost earnings and losses to national economic productivity. Conversely, investing in nutrition provides many benefits for poverty reduction and economic growth. This article draws from analyses conducted in four sub-Saharan countries to demonstrate that investments in nutrition can also be very cost-effective in South Asian countries. Specifically, the analyses demonstrate that scaling up a set of 10 critical nutrition-specific interventions is highly cost-effective when considered as a package. Most of the interventions are also very cost-effective when considered individually. By modelling cost-effectiveness of different scale-up scenarios, the analysis offers insights into ways in which the impact of investing in nutrition interventions can be maximized under budget constraints. Rigorous estimations of the costs and benefits of nutrition investments, similar to those reported here for sub-Saharan countries, are an important next step for all South Asian countries in order to drive political commitment and action and to enhance allocative efficiency of nutrition resources.