Hunger-Undernutrition Blog

2013 Chicago Council Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security

by Priya Bapat, Humanitas Global

On May 21, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs will host their annual Global Food Security Symposium. The symposium, held in Washington, D.C. each May, highlights major themes in global food security and convenes global leaders from the policy, academic, advocacy, non-profit and private sector communities to discuss challenges and opportunities for improving food security around the world.

The theme of this year's event is on the power of science, trade and business to end hunger and poverty around the world. The purpose of the event is to see "how the US can mobilize science, increase trade, and continue to capitalize on the incredible power of business to meet future food demand."  Event speakers include Dr. Helene D. Gayle, President and CEO of CARE; Lauren Bush Lauren, CEO and Cofounder of FEED; Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator; Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture; and many others.

The Humanitas team will be in attendance tomorrow and we will include coverage of the event on the Hunger & Undernutrition blog and on Twitter (@humanitasglobal).  For more information on the event and to watch the event via livestream, please visit the Symposium website.  You can also follow the conversation on Twitter using the event hashtag #globalag. 

Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition Post 2015

By Priya Bapat, Humanitas Global

As the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals approaches, considerations for the post-2015 global development agenda are now in full swing.  In the food and nutrition security world, there have been a flurry of events discussing the most important current and future global challenges and which should be prioritized in the post-2015 agenda.

Last week, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) organized the High-Level Consultation on Hunger, Food Security and Nutrition, one of eleven consultations organized by the United Nations to kick off discussions on the post-2015 global development agenda.  Hosted in Madrid by the Governments of Spain and Colombia, the high-level event was the final step in the three-phase consultative process. Earlier, the FAO and WFP hosted an online consultation followed by a more informal consultation with food and nutrition security experts.

The final report from the consultation is yet to be released, but there were several important issues and priorities that emerged from both the broader e-consultation and the expert consultation. The ideas in these reports are not revolutionary, but instead reflect the changes and lessons learned since the launch of the initial set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). For example, in current discussions on hunger eradication and food security, no conversation is complete without addressing the challenges of improving nutritional status. However, in the original MDGs, hunger was measured by caloric deficiencies, without any consideration for adequate nutrition.  

Both consultations also called for a more holistic approach to not only food and nutrition security, but to development as a whole.  Participants highlight the importance of not only including measurements to promote agricultural growth, but also advocate for the inclusion of indicators to ensure that growth is sustainable and takes into account environmental protection, gender equality, and poverty, among other factors. During the e-consultation, the MDGs were criticized for being fragmented into different targets, based on the division of labor between the various UN agencies. This was thought to have discouraged cross-sector collaboration and have created artificial boundaries between the highly interrelated and interdependent development priorities.  

Following the conclusion of all eleven consultations, the UN High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons, the 27-member body appointment by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will finalize their recommendations on the post-2015 agenda. The final report by the panel is due on May 30. To follow the progress on the post-2015 development agenda, please visit The World We Want or Beyond2015.

Open Data for Global Food Security

By Meredith Perry, Program Manager at Scientists Without Borders

Somali pastorialists measuring rainfall with ILRI researchers. Photo by ILRI.

As many of you are no doubt intimately aware, in low resource settings, data collection is slow, costly, and subject to human error.  Agricultural extension researchers regularly travel poor roads across vast geographic distances to collect basic data on soil quality, weather patterns, crop selection, livestock, and yield.  This collection is often conducted via peer-to-peer interviews that rely on memory and infrequently standardized measuring tools.  

The result is an incomplete data picture that hinders the ability of producers, researchers, and policymakers to identify, implement, and track key conditions and interventions to improve productivity, harvest quality, and human nutritional intake. Furthermore, stakeholders struggle to effectively identify key producers and market leaders to scale successful approaches, and to determine effective and efficient resource allocation and policies. In short, the absence of good data compromises efforts to improve global food security.

Facing the food security consequences associated with pervasive incomplete data collection and aggregation, last year, G-8 leaders announced the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, where they committed to sharing “relevant agricultural data… to develop options for the establishment of a global platform to make reliable agricultural and related information available to African farmers, researchers and policymakers, taking into account existing agricultural data systems.” As part of this commitment, the US Department of Agriculture, in partnership with the G8, hosted an International Conference for Open Data for Agriculture in Washington, DC, from April 28-29, 2013.

Kenyan girl buying milk. Photo by ILRI.

Scientists Without Borders, along with an array of governments, NGOs, businesses, and international institutions, was invited to present at the conference.  Together we discussed strategies for aggregating and sharing agricultural data, ranging from NASA announcing how their GEO-GLAM (The Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring) project allows researchers to identify weather patterns, to Mars Inc, discussing their plant genomics databank, to Mozambique sharing lessons learned from their initiative to revitalize and make public their national agricultural surveys.  Despite these programs, Stanley Wood, the Data and Diagnostics officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, noted that a common refrain among the presenters was not only the challenge of collecting the data, but aggregating and sharing it in a standardized, searchable fashion so that researchers, policymakers and producers could access it across platforms.

 

With these twin hurdles in mind, at the conference Scientists Without Borders, in partnership with The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, debuted our own open innovation challenge seeking bold, innovative, feasible, and scalable ideas to leapfrog existing approaches and significantly improve the collection, reporting, aggregation, and sharing of data associated with dairy production and consumption all along the smallholder dairy production value chain in, but not limited to, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.  The challenge will run for 60 days, concluding on July 11, 2013 and student solvers (from the middle school to post-doctoral level) are invited to submit their ideas.  More information is available on the Scientists Without Borders website. 

Scientists Without Borders is a worldwide, web-based collaborative community dedicated to generating, sharing, and advancing innovative science and technology-based solutions to the world`s most pressing global development challenges.

 

 

 

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Food Security

by Matthew Cruse, Independent Technology Consultant

Famines, food emergencies and natural disasters and their corresponding human responses are often accompanied by confusion and misinformation. Increasingly, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is able to assist in allaying the confusion and presenting a more comprehensive way of sorting through the information and misinformation. First responders are thrust into new and chaotic situations, often with little information on who needs what and when. Having a common and accessible GIS system that is linked to coordination activities helps to temper this chaos.

GIS is a visualization of data that allows decision makers to see information in a new way. Popular GIS applications include Google Maps, Bing Maps and Open Street Maps. Professional GIS applications, such as ArcGIS and other commercial products, offer more advanced functionalities that are used in more complex and long-standing projects. These are generally more difficult to learn and require a fairly significant upfront cost, both financially and in personnel time.

In situations that require rapid responses such as food emergencies and natural disasters, the most important question is usually what is getting where and delivered by whom. GIS is able to assist in answering those questions by helping first responders and stakeholders to better coordinate activities. During the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, emergency rations were being flown into Port-a-Prince by the planeload. However, distribution remained a daunting task. While it could not assist with the actual logistical nature of ration distribution, online and mobile GIS platforms allowed distribution networks to visually display areas that had received/not received rations as well as areas and neighborhoods that remained in critical need of humanitarian assistance.

Longer-term food crisis settings can also benefit from GIS visualization. As an example, proximity mapping is a common feature that allows users to see certain demographic attributes within a chosen diameter or perimeter of a focal point. That point could be a military checkpoint or a humanitarian food distribution center. This type of mapping can assist stakeholders in two ways:

• It provides a more effective reporting mechanism than other means of dialogue. You can report that a certain number of distribution centers shoud be within certain areas; or you can visualize it and show population densities and advocate making decisions based on those images. 
• It also provides an effective means of formulating strategy.

When users are able to visualize activities and expected outputs on top of areas that have demonstrated need, it becomes a powerful method of determining the relative value of activity in geographic means.

Food scarcity is a fairly new and untapped area of development where GIS can, and will, add value. Depending on the complexity of the reporting technology available, organizations can visualize agricultural scarcity down to the most granular level of a single point of latitude and longitude. This information can then be combined with projected program results or strategic goals to see if deliverables are going to the populations most in need. Even when the level of granularity is at a district/sub-state level, programs can still benefit from GIS visualization. Decision makers are increasingly asking answers that GIS applications can assist in answering.

While GIS applications will never directly solve the problems that development organizations are seeking to answer, whether short- or long-term, they can play a role in making decision makers smarter. Knowing what is needed where and who should be working where is a powerful asset in decision-making. Similarly, knowing what should be where and when is a powerful asset in planning future operations. Both a backward- and forward-looking tool will likely prove invaluable to development organizations of all stripes and sizes.

Some examples of resources/organizations involved in humanitarian/development GIS work (far from a conclusive list):

• ESRI
• Columbia University CIESEN
• Google Crisis Map/Person Finder
• Digiglobe
• Crisis Mappers Network (volunteer based)
• TomNod
• World Bank – Mapping for Results

Matthew Cruse is an independent technology consultant. His focus is primarily on using ICT for improving impact evaluations and M&E. Currently based in India, he is continually looking at the intersection between development and technology and how that interaction can improve development programs.

BLINK: Nominations Open for 2013 World Food Prize

The World Food Prize is awarded annually to leaders who have made significant contributions to improve the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.  In previous years, the World Food Prize has honored the achievements made by scientists, politicians, civil society leaders and others who have revolutionized and advanced how we feed the world.  The 2012 World Food Prize Laureate, Dr. Daniel Hillel of Israel, is credited with pioneering micro-irrigation, a practice that effectively and efficiently irrigates crops while minimizing total water usage.

If you know of anyone who you believe should be considered for this year's World Food Prize, please submit your nomination by May 1.

Hunger, Advocacy and the US Federal Budget

by Priya Bapat, Humanitas Global

Here in DC, spring has finally arrived.  The cherry blossoms are in full bloom and everyone is celebrating the end of the cold weather.  Springtime is also a time for another annual DC tradition - federal budget appropriations.  

Normally, for those working in the food security world, this is a time to fight against budget cuts in the international assistance budget and hope, against all likelihood, that this may be the year when there will be reforms to our less than efficient food distribution and subsidization policies. This year, while funding for domestic and international food assistance programs are at risk for serious budget cuts, there are also interesting changes anticipated for the nature of international food aid delivery.

The budget process follows more or less the same process each year.  By April 15, both the House and the Senate are supposed to pass non-binding budget resolutions that outlines their priorities for the coming fiscal year. While Senate Democrats and Republicans have not been able to reach an agreement for the past four years, this year both the House and Senate were able to pass budget resolutions on schedule.  The House and Senate budget resolutions are separate and can vary greatly on key points. Bread for the World has a helpful guide that outlines the key differences between both the House and Senate budgets on the topic of global and domestic hunger and nutrition.

Budget Process Overview

In theory, the House and the Senate have some guidance from the President's office on the executive branch's priorities and proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. The President is supposed to release his budget by February 1, before the legislative budget discussions begin in each chamber.  However, these have been released late in recent years.  President Obama is set to release his budget this week, two months behind schedule.

Once the House and Senate budget resolutions are passed, each chamber works on separate appropriations bills which detail specific line-by-line budgets for twelve different thematic areas, each of which is represented by a subcommittee in the Appropriations Committee.  Each Appropriations subcommittee debates and proposes legislation which are then sent to the main floor for full chamber discussion and vote. Both the House and Senate must vote on and pass twelve separate bills for each of the subcommittee themes.  Together, they form the complete federal budget.  

Once the House and Senate have finalized their respective budgets, representatives from each chamber meet to reconcile the differences between the two budgets.  Once these differences are resolved, the House and Senate vote and pass the same budget and each of the appropriations bills is sent to the President to be signed into law.  In theory, all of this must be done by October 1 of each year.

The Budget and Food and Nutrition Security

This year, there are major pressures to reduce the overall budget, by cutting expenditures, increasing government revenues, or some combination of the two.  Programs geared toward ensuring food and nutrition security may face major challenges this year.

Each of the budget line items is given a numerical code called a budget function according to its thematic area, much like the Dewey Decimal system. For the food and nutrition security community, there are several important budget accounts to track, such as the 150 account (International Affairs - includes USAID budget), 350 (Agriculture - includes part of overseas food assistance programs), 600 (Income Security - covers domestic food aid programs such as SNAP and WIC).

What are the major budget issues being debated for food security this year?

• Cuts to Domestic Food Assistance Programs: The budget resolutions passed in the House and Senate have wildly different approaches to food assistance programs in the U.S.  The Senate resolution protects these programs, while the House resolution includes massive cuts to food assistance and poverty alleviation programs, such as a $135 billion cut to SNAP (food stamps). Sequestration has already reduced the amount of funds available for programs such as SNAP (food stamps) - it is tough to imagine families in need continuing to feed their families without these types of programs.
• Cuts to International Assistance Programs: Despite comprising less than 1% of total budget expenditure, the foreign aid is always highly contested in terms of the final appropriations amounts.  Food security programs are included primarily in the International Affairs and Agriculture accounts and it remains to be seen what the final amount will be.
• Changes to Food Aid Delivery Systems: There are strong signs that the President's budget will include a proposal to overhaul the way that international food aid systems currently work. As a cost-cutting measure, the President is set to propose ending the practice of shipping American-grown produce to countries in need and instead focus aid money on purchasing food from sources closer to the aid recipients. Even before the President has submitted his budget, members of Congress and some American shipping companies and food producers are already protesting this proposal.

Hunger Advocacy

This time of year is extremely important for those working in the food and nutrition security space to make Congress understand how essential these programs are to protecting food security both domestically and around the world. A well-fed and healthy population is crucial for ensuring prosperity, economic growth and peace.  

There are many advocates working to protect and expand these programs, such as Bread for the World, Feeding America, Share Our Strength, the ONE campaign, InterAction and others.  However, these organizations alone cannot protect these rights without the full support of the food and nutrition security community and the general public.  

For more information on how to advocate for anti-hunger and foreign assistance legislation, visit any of the many resources available online that guide you in how to contact your representative and let them know why they should make fighting hunger a priority.

The Salt Dilemma: A Balancing Act

Crossposted from the Humanitas Global Development Blog

Guest post by Ruth Situma, Nutrition Specialist - Micronutrients, UNICEF

Salt and its role in nutrition are controversial topics. There are passionate views and valid research-based insights about salt consumption, which have governments, global health authorities and food companies confronted with the dilemma of finding a place for salt in a healthy diet, while managing its overconsumption. 

Salt is widely consumed globally. Approximately 90% of the salt consumed in industrialized countries is from processed foods, while developing countries largely consume salt in home-cooked food.  The latter trend is gradually changing with increased urbanization. Salt is unique as it is one of the foodstuffs that is consistently consumed all year round. Because of its universal appeal, the iodization of salt has been an important nutrition intervention, and has helped reduce iodine deficiency rates globally.

According to the WHO approximately 70% of the global population has access to adequately iodized salt. The WHO states that “salt is generally used as the vehicle for providing iodine because it is consumed by most of the population at fairly constant levels throughout the year, and its taste and appearance is not affected by iodization.”

The impact of salt iodization programs is well documented.  According to the WHO, iodine deficiency is the world's most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage.  With the help of salt iodization, the number of countries classified as iodine deficient has declined from 54 to 32 in the past 10 years, but there are some regions where rates remain elevated (South East Asia and Africa) or are on the rise (United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland).

While salt has been an important conduit for a critical micronutrient, its increasing overconsumption contributes to escalating rates of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. In 2007, the WHO came out with their salt consumption recommendations of <5 grams per day per person in an effort to prevent chronic diseases. This target may seem overambitious to some given salt’s prevalence in processed, packaged and snack foods, but with enabling policies and programs, and consumer engagement with salt consumption reduction efforts, global health authorities believe that we can make progress toward this target.

The challenge with salt is that it is lauded for its role in reducing rates of iodine deficiency diseases, but at the same time villainized for contributing to growing health problems.  What does this mean for iodization efforts and calls for universal salt iodization programs?  Do we throw out the baby with the bath water?  Do we look to other mechanisms by which to ensure adequate iodine intake? Were we sending the wrong message when we added an important micronutrient to a food that must be consumed in moderation?

All these questions are valid and worth debating.  As far as iodization efforts are concerned, a recent report written by health, nutrition and food fortification experts recognizes salt’s important role in the diet.  Moderation is key and in that moderation, we can actually increase fortification levels of iodine to reflect the new WHO recommendations for salt intake. This is important news for universal iodization advocacy efforts.

The fact is that we can and should promote reduced intake of salt, while not compromising the positive nutritional and health impact we have experienced with salt iodization efforts.  We must push forward with advocating for the universal access and use of iodized salt and know that we are not sending a mixed message. It’s ultimately about good communications to the public, enabling government policies, improved production and distribution efforts, and adjusted fortification levels to give consumers the maximum fortification benefit packed in a smaller punch.

Ruth Situma is a Nutrition Specialist; Micronutrients in UNICEF HQ New York. She has vast experience in Nutrition and Food security programmes in different countries in areas including Nutrition in emergencies, Micronutrients programmes, Nutrition information systems, Nutrition policies and advocacy.

International Year of Water Cooperation

by Priya Bapat, Humanitas Global Development

Last week on March 22, we observed World Water Day, a global awareness day created by the United Nations in 1993 that has increased in importance over the past several years.  Last year's theme focused on the water and hunger, highlighting the integral connection between water management and availability and the incidence of global hunger.  This year's theme is equally important for global food security advocates - international cooperation on global water management.

Together with UNESCO, UN-Water is promoting international water cooperation as a means to combat poverty, improve socio-economic development and build a more secure world. Ensuring a water secure future requires cooperation across political boundaries, geographies, economics and competing priorities.  The important role that water plays in agriculture is well understood.  If we are to double global agricultural production in the next 40 years, we need to make sure that there is enough available water in the world to support our present and future food production needs.  As low-income countries continue to develop and the middle class grows, global demand for animal products will also continue to grow, driving up our global agricultural water needs even further.

However, as important as food security is, it is not our only pressing water need. Currently, 92% of the global freshwater supply is used for agriculture.  This leaves only 8% of the global freshwater supply for other uses, such as drinking, cooking and bathing.  As we consider how to improve water delivery systems so that we are able to increase global agricultural production, it is of absolute importance that we also ensure that there is an adequate supply of freshwater available to support our other needs.  It is also of critical importance to find ways to improve the efficiency of water usage in agriculture, through better management practices and the adoption and development of technologies such as drip irrigation. Food security and hunger eradication are extremely important development priorities, but they are no more important than other goals, such as making sure that people around the world, both now and in the future, have constant access to clean, fresh drinking water.

Although World Water Day has now passed, UNESCO and UN-Water will continue to advocate for increased collaboration and cooperation on global water management through 2013 and beyond.  To read more about examples of global water cooperation efforts currently underway, visit the World Water Day website.

Walk the Talk: It’s Time for the Global Community to Move from Aspirations to Action to Fight Hunger

Guest blog post by Shenggen Fan, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

 

In 2012, world food security remained vulnerable. Progress in the fight against hunger and malnutrition has been piecemeal, at best, and levels remain unacceptably high, with 870 million people hungry and 2 billion suffering from micronutrient deficiencies. New data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and results from IFPRI’s own scenario modeling, suggest that on its current trajectory of tepid promises and unfulfilled commitments, the international community will fall far short of the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

Despite notable increases in investment in agriculture, food security, and nutrition, the international community— development agencies, financial institutions, governments, and others—continues to miss major opportunities to take decisive action. With agriculture and food security now at the forefront of the global policy agenda, we have an unprecedented opportunity to walk the talk with concrete steps:

• We have talked about improving smallholder farmers’ agricultural productivity for achieving food and nutrition security, but investment in agriculture, particularly agricultural research, remains low in many developing countries in Africa south of Sahara and South Asia. Investments by governments, the private sector, and farmers must increase and priorities must be carefully selected. 
• We have talked about the green economy and sustainable development, especially at last year’s Rio+20, but the talk has not translated into specific commitments. We need to develop and implement an action plan to improve smallholders’ livelihoods while maintaining environmental sustainability—and turn farming into a modern, forward-looking occupation that offers a future for young, rural people.
• We have talked about gender equality and the positive impact this can have on improving agricultural productivity, but policies, strategies, and development projects should be designed with a greater focus on gender.
• We have talked about reforming agricultural policies in OECD countries to mitigate the negative impact on smallholder farmers in developing countries, but policymakers continue to distort markets with subsidies, trade restrictions, and other policies that have far-reaching repercussions.

IFPRI’s 2012 Global Food Policy Report reviews food policy developments and trends with chapter-by-chapter discussions of major food policy developments, high-quality research, and perspectives of farmers from around the world. It also charts the path forward with a call to action on gender rights, employment in agriculture for youth in Africa, a needed evolution of US and EU support for their farmers, and regional policy reforms to promote food and nutrition security.

The question now is: Will 2013 prove different? It must. In a landscape of rhetoric and promises, on-the-ground implementation must improve if the lives of the hungry and malnourished are to improve. It is time to walk the talk.

For additional materials including the full report and graphics (high resolution and low resolution), please visit: http://www.ifpri.org/pressroom/briefing/walk-talk-taking-action-fight-hunger

Shenggen Fan is the director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting the food needs of the developing world, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. It is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. www.ifpri.org

Women's Rights in Agriculture

by Priya Bapat, Humanitas Global Development

Each year on March 8, the world celebrates International Women's Day by highlighting the importance, contributions and challenges of women across the globe.  It is a well known fact that investing in women yields benefits not only for her, but also for her family, her community, her country and the world as a whole.  

In the world of food security, women occupy center stage in any discussion around nutrition and the health and well-being of their children.  Now, women are also taking a much more prominent role in global agriculture, a field traditionally dominated by men. According to UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter, as men are migrating to urban centers in search of work, farming duties are increasingly falling to women.  

Female farmers, however, face a myriad of obstacles that men do not face, including land ownership rights, authority over laborers, and access to resources such as credit, technology and inputs. The effect of these discriminations has a devastating impact.  Not only do they make farming more challenging, but they also reduce total farm output, income and overall health and well-being of women and their families.

 In a recent report to the UN, De Schutter writes that in countries where women lack ownership rights, there is a 60% higher rate of child malnutrition than in countries where women have these rights.  For countries where women lack access to credit, the child malnutrition rate is 85% higher than in those where women have access. 

When the playing field is level, however, the potential for change is equally impressive.  De Schutter cites a 2010 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which found that "if women had the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent. This could raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5–4 percent, which could in turn reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12–17 percent."

The issue of women's rights as farmers is just one of countless examples on how gender inequalities exacerbate global challenges such as poverty, hunger and malnutrition.  Only by addressing these systemtic issues can we achieve a hunger and poverty free future.

Special Rapporteur De Schutter's full report addresses additional topics on women's rights and the right to food, including employment and social protection and is available online here.

Nutrition Climbs Up the Global Agenda

Crossposted with permission from Bread for the World Institute's blog - Institute Notes: A Dialogue on Overcoming Hunger and Poverty

by Scott Bleggi with Bread for the World Institute

A veritable “who’s who” of the nutrition community recently gathered in Washington, DC, for a World Bank-sponsored event, Nutrition in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Global policy and advocacy experts discussed the importance of nutrition in the successor framework to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – more specifically, how to connect the technical aspects of nutrition and development with the political and practical “in order to come up with concrete and actionable principles and recommendations.”

Why this high-level discussion of nutrition, and why now? Nutrition is a key component of reaching MDG 1 (reduce hunger and extreme poverty by half). It’s critical to nearly all the other goals as well. As 2015, the expiration date of the original MDGs, approaches, there's a lot of buzz about post-2015 global development goals. That’s why now is the best opportunity to strengthen nutrition’s place in the existing goals and/ or to come up with a new goal that recognizes the foundational role of nutrition to a range of development goals.

With more than 2 billion people around the world suffering from malnutrition (including more than 865 million children), we have a long way to go to create the future we believe in: one in which everyone, but especially women of reproductive age and children, has access to adequate nutritious food. According to the chair of the U.N.’s Standing Committee on Nutrition, the so-called “burden of malnutrition” takes three forms: undernutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and obesity. We need to focus urgently on easing this burden.

There is a growing consensus that combatting stunting in children (measured by significant deviation from the expected height for a child’s age) should be the highest priority. Reducing stunting is one of the six global targets endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012, which suggested a goal of reducing the number of children under age 5 who are stunted by 40 percent by 2022. This would translate to 40 million fewer stunted kids than there would otherwise be.

Photo credit:  scalingupnutrition.org UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1279/Josh Estey

Why stop at a 40 percent reduction? Is a goal of zero stunting in children attainable? FAO Director-General Graziano da Silva, in his guidance on ensuring that eradicating hunger and malnutrition and building food security remain high priorities in the post-2015 development framework, urged the international community to commit to “the complete eradication of hunger” in setting country priorities. This follows U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Zero Hunger Challenge, which was announced in June 2012 at the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference.

Also recently, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) issued a position paper entitled “A World Free from Hunger and Malnutrition” that calls for zero stunting to be considered “a new benchmark for global development success.” GAIN is a global foundation that assists nearly 670 million people facing malnutrition in more than 30 countries. In recommending that nutrition be at the heart of the post-2015 development framework, GAIN emphasizes that stunting strongly correlates with development -- what happens on stunting offers a good measure of progress on a range of other development objectives. Reaching the specific deliverable goal of zero stunting would be the best indicator that the world’s children are getting the right start in life.

The critical importance of nutrition across nearly all development sectors is being recognized. Global momentum on improving nutrition is growing, especially in the countries most burdened by malnutrition and stunting. Consensus among nutrition experts on the importance of stunting as a nutrition indicator has been reached. What is left is the need to communicate one message to global political leaders in a powerful, unified, and simple way: improving nutrition is key to ending hunger in our lifetime.

Scott Bleggi is the senior international policy analyst in Bread for the World Institute.