Malnutrition in the OIC Member

Countries: A Trap for Poverty

The SDGs and targets are an important step in the right direction for nutrition. However, they

do not include all six World Health Assembly (WHA) targets. It is therefore possible that actors

will focus on only part of the full set of internationally agreed actions needed to sustainably

ensure maternal and child nutrition. Box 2 shows the six global nutrition goals agreed on in

2012 unanimously by the WHA.

While having a goal which specifically addresses nutrition is widely considered an

improvement with respect to the MDGs, and may well be most effective for galvanizing

commitment for nutrition and for guiding action, an even stronger position for nutrition could

be achieved by including in the indicators other ‘nutrition sensitive' goals. The nutrition

community, and its natural allies in the food systems, agriculture, WASH, gender, social

protection and health communities, advocated strongly for action oriented, measurable targets

for improved nutrition across the SDG framework. While malnutrition is included under the

hunger, food security and nutrition goal, there is no reference to it under any other goal or

target, including the target to end preventable new-born and child deaths (target 3:2), even

though 45% of all preventable child deaths under the age of five are due to malnutrition (Black

et al., 2013). The risk is thus that the concept of “improved nutrition” is restricted to hunger

reduction and food security, leading to sole focus on the access to food. The absence of

nutrition across the SDGs could send the signal that other sectors such as health and water and

sanitation are not as critical in improving nutrition as food security and agriculture. This

would cause institutional silos whereas there is global consensus that a multi-sectoral

approach is essential. In an analysis of all 230 SDG indicators, over 50 of them were identified

as highly relevant to nutrition (Haddad, 2013).

The evidence-based solutions to end malnutrition are known. Therefore, it would be advisable

to have an indicator measuring the state of implementation of nutrition-specific and nutrition

sensitive actions according to national plans. This would also strengthen the belief that

nutrition is foundational for sustainable development (Korenromp, 2015). Nutrition advocacy

groups, including the International Coalition for Advocacy on Nutrition (a coalition of

international NGOs, advocacy organisations and foundations united around the shared goal of

improved nutrition) strongly advocated for the inclusion of all six WHA targets, women's

dietary diversity and sufficient budget allocated for nutrition as national level targets.

Overall, the SDGs represent a window of opportunity for the global community to work

together to improve nutrition. To achieve success, nutrition actions in the SDGs must be

evidence-based and promoted at scale, successes during the SDG timeframe must be well-

documented and disseminated to allow experiential learning and nutrition progress as part of

the SDGs must be well measured (Webb, 2014). The inclusion of malnutrition in all its forms

also poses a data challenge. Quality, coverage and availability of disaggregated data must be

significantly improved to support actions aimed at improving nutrition across the SDGs.

1.3. Forms of Malnutrition and Intergenerational Transmission of

Malnutrition

The term ‘malnutrition' is used to describe a number of problems including deficiencies,

excesses or imbalances in energy, protein, and/or other nutrient intakes and include both

undernutrition, and overweight and obesity. All forms of malnutrition have important

consequences for global health and survival with long-lasting impacts on development and

economic productivity (Black et al., 2013).