With less than five years left to accomplish the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is with great hope that nutrition remains a central theme in achieving them. One of the targets of the first MDG is to reduce the proportion of people who sufferfrom hunger by half between 1990 and 2015, with hunger measured as the proportion of the population who are undernourished and the prevalence of children under five who are underweight. In low and middle income countries progress has been mixed. With onebillion people hungry, 129 million and 195 million children are underweight and stunted respectively. Of the 117 countries analysed by UNICEF in late 2009, 63 are on track to meet the MDG1 target based on the proportion of children underweight. From this review, most strategies being implemented and scaled are focused on the direct nutrition-specific interventions - critically important and necessary. However the "nutrition-sensitive" interventions are less clear, particularly those in agriculture andagricultural biodiversity. This review provides an overview of the role of agricultural biodiversity in food and nutrition systems and its potential importance in addressing the determinants of malnutrition and a road to sustainable progress in achievingMDG1 and beyond. Integrating agriculture and agricultural biodiversity practices with broader nutrition-sensitive interventions to address underlying causes of nutrition insecurity is critical for generating durable and longer-term gains. Such an approach would inherently build on the knowledge and capacities of local communities to transform and improve the quality of diets for better child health and nutrition. Success in achieving the MDG1 hunger target will hinge on addressing the root causes of poor nutrition - through evidence-based and contextually relevant food system approaches that can rapidly be taken to scale.largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a bold global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and to address a series of time-bound health and development targets. Among these MDGs isa commitment to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015. In 2011, some countries remain far from reaching this target, and ensuring global food security persists as one of the greatest challenges of our time.In the developing world, reductions in hunger witnessed during the 1990s have recently been eroded by the global food price and economic crises.There are currently an estimated 925 million people suffering food and nutrition insecurity; however with food price increases, these estimates may be conservative (FAO, 2010). In addition to those who are hungry, there are also 195 million children under five years of age who are stunted and of those children, 90 percent live in just 36 countries. Malnutrition takes its toll; it is responsible for 35 percent of all child deaths and 11 percent of the global disease burden. Micronutrient deficiencies, known as hidden hunger, undermine the growth and development, health and productivity of over two billion people. At the same time, an estimated one billion people are overweight and another 300 million are obese in both the developed and developing world(WHO, 2006) which contributes to non-communicable disease risk such as diabetes and heart disease. With over-nutrition, many countries and urban communities in the developing world are experiencing the nutrition transition - going from undernutrition toobesity caused by insufficient exercise, sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets (Popkin, 2008).
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