Malnutrition is not just a social or developmental challenge — it has the potential to hold back global economies.
For instance, some countries with 30-50 percent stunting rates due to childhood malnutrition have seen their gross domestic product knocked down between 5 and 15 percent, according to Roger Thurow, a senior fellow on global agriculture and food policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
See more on #FeedingDev:
● 4 issues that matter in nutrition
● The nexus of agriculture and nutrition
● Nutritional intake patterns: Implications for food security?
● What it will take to end food waste
“There is a huge opportunity cost. What might a stunted child have contributed to all of us, to society if they weren’t stunted?” he said in a video interview with Devex.
Addressing food security is about more than hunger, Thurow emphasized, because many more people suffer from harmful micronutrient deficiencies — which are harder to detect.
Click on the above clip to find out more from this expert on the importance of nutrition to food security, especially in the first 1,000 days from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday.
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Feeding Development is an online conversation hosted by Devex in partnership with ACDI/VOCA, Chemonics, Fintrac, GAIN, Nestlé and Tetra Tech to reimagine solutions for a food-secure future from seed and soil to a healthy meal.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.