Child Health and Nutrition

Stunting, wasting, hidden hunger, and overweight/obesity are the main nutrition problems affecting, respectively, 149, 45, 340, and 39 million of children. Epidemiological evidence reveals that worldwide the Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate malnutrition by 2030 are far to be reached. Inadequate infant and young child feeding practices, food insecurity, poverty, and limited access to health services contribute to malnutrition, which is also affected by socioeconomic, commercial, and political factors, and occurs in an intergeneration cycle. Furthermore, child malnutrition has been challenged by the economic crisis and food- and health-system disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The existing key interventions have the potential to be further scaled up to address undernutrition and overnutrition concurrently, notably by cross-cutting education, agriculture, food systems, social safety nets, and “water, hygiene, and sanitation”. Despite their positive nutrition outcomes, data on programmes coverage and costs are still lacking. Several stakeholders are called to sustain global nutrition.