Number 14, February 2012
briefing paper
Linking Nutrition and Health:
Progress and Opportunities
by Rebecca J. Vander Meulen, M.P.H. and Noreen Mucha, M.P.A.
Bread for the World Institute provides policy
analysis on hunger and strategies to end it.
The Institute educates its network, opinion
leaders, policy makers and the public about
hunger in the United States and abroad.
www.bread.org
UN Photo/Kibae Park
Abstract
Key Points
• Good nutrition, particularly in early childhood, is critical to positive
health outcomes and achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goals,
particularly Goals 4, 5, and 6. Studies indicate that children who survive
undernutrition during the 1,000 days between pregnancy and age two are
more vulnerable to disease. Undernutrition undermines the effectiveness
of life-saving medicines.
• A new global consensus on high-impact, evidence-based, and cost-effective
nutrition interventions has been supported by high-level U.S. and global
political commitment to scale up nutrition.
• The U.S. Global Health Initiative offers an important opportunity
to increase and leverage health investments to support countryowned strategies to improve nutrition outcomes. Scaling up nutrition
interventions through health programs can multiply the impact of
investments in priority areas such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, water,
sanitation, and hygiene.
Rebecca Vander Meulen is director of community development, Diocese of Niassa, Mozambique.
Noreen Mucha is a nutrition consultant with Bread for the World Insititute.
In the last few years, there has been an
unprecedented global effort to scale up
maternal and child nutrition. The effort
is prompted by increasing recognition of
the devastating and largely irreversible
impact of undernutrition on children in
the 1,000-day window from pregnancy
to age two—and by a growing consensus
on a set of evidence-based, cost-effective
nutrition interventions. The United States
has been a leader in the global effort and
has made maternal and child nutrition
improvements a primary objective of
its Feed the Future and Global Health
initiatives.
Nutrition has been an issue neglected
for far too long, so the recent attention
to maternal and child nutrition creates
a unique opportunity to make progress.
Scaling up and making meaningful,
measurable progress against malnutrition
will require both additional resources
and new ways of working. It will mean
supporting national nutrition strategies
that are country-owned and -driven,
ensuring coordination across sectors
to improve nutrition outcomes, and
investing in human and institutional
capacity to scale up at the global and
country levels. Leveraging linkages among
nutrition, health, and agriculture sectors
can significantly increase the benefits of
nutrition investments.