What we do

Addressing urgent needs

Our approach and interventions reflect the need for increased global focus by the international community on maternal and child nutrition in developing countries. The Lancet’s Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition provides new evidence on the consequences of maternal and child undernutrition and is a call to action for national-level governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the international nutrition community to support the expansion of food and nutrition programs.

Without proper nutrition, children suffer severe childhood illnesses, stunted growth, developmental delays, and death. The Lancet series reports that maternal and child undernutrition is an underlying cause of more than one-third of child deaths and 11 percent of the total global disease burden. In developing countries, more than 3.5 million mothers and children younger than five die each year worldwide as a result of undernutrition.

And yet malnutrition is largely preventable through proven nutrition interventions such as optimal breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices. The Lancet Series on Child Survival shows that infant and young child deaths could be reduced by 13 percent through exclusive breastfeeding and by another 6 percent through use of optimal complementary feeding practices.

A critical window

More than one-third of children in developing countries are at risk of irreversible damage as a result of poor nutrition. Our project focuses on the idea that a window of opportunity for preventing malnutrition exists from pregnancy through the first two years of life.

In Africa and Latin America, infant growth rates start to fall below the median at six months after birth and continue to fall until children reach one year of age; in Asia, many children are underweight at birth and continue to deteriorate through the second year of life. This period—during fetal development and the first two years—is the critical time during which many children in developing countries are at risk of malnutrition, the consequences of which are almost always irreversible.

The chart above depicts a pattern of growth seen almost universally in developing countries: infant nutritional status indicators falter before birth in some children, shortly after birth in others, and by six months in others. Some of these children will die before their second birthday. Others will remain short in stature the rest of their lives and will suffer a life-time of consequences including poor health, lower educational achievement, and reduced income as a result. 

Please see the Overview of Resources page for more information on The Lancet’s Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition (2008).

Chart reproduced from: Repositioning Nutrition as Central to Development. A Strategy for Large-Scale Action. Directions in Development. The World Bank, 2006. As adapted from: Shrimpton R, et al. The worldwide timing of growth faltering: implications for nutritional interventions. Pediatrics. 2001;107:e75.

Photos: Aurelio Ayala III; 2005 Paul J. Crystal, Courtesy of Photoshare