The aim of Transform Nutrition is to transform how people think about nutrition and how they act to improve it
We aim to help stakeholders in the most-affected countries – policy-makers, civil society and business leaders – to use quality research to address undernutrition.
Undernutrition causes the deaths of millions of young children every year. For children who survive, it disrupts their schooling, and means they’re likely to remain poor as adults. The human and economic costs are enormous. Yet the rate of reducing undernutrition remains desperately slow.
The puzzles of undernutrition
We know what works in terms of direct nutrition interventions. But scaling up is not happening fast enough.
We know there are large resource flows in sectors such as agriculture, social protection and health systems. But their potential to improve nutrition is rarely exploited.
Finally, in countries where undernutrition is high, the priority is often on getting food on the table, rather than addressing nutrition needs. Better nutrition is in everyone’s interests. But it’s nobody’s responsibility.
Finding solutions
Transform Nutrition aims to find answers to these puzzles. It aims to transform the way the world thinks about nutrition and inspire action to tackle the crisis.
Over five years, from 2012 to 2017, we’ll strengthen the evidence base for nutrition. We’ll focus on the 1,000-day period from pre-pregnancy to 24 months of age – the window of opportunity, where interventions are most effective at reducing undernutrition.
And we’ll promote the use of this new knowledge to accelerate the rate of reduction of undernutrition in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa – the two regions with the highest burden of undernutrition.
