Nutrition: A quintessential sustainable development goal

摘要

In the final paper of our 2008 Lancet Series on maternal and child undernutrition, Saul Morris and colleagues wrote that, "The international nutrition system-made up of international and donor organisations, academia, civil society, and the private sector-is fragmented and dysfunctional". They concluded that, incredibly, no evidence base existed to prioritise actions to improve nutrition. And they argued that the voice of countries must be better heard, felt, and reflected in global decision making. Too often country priorities to strengthen nutrition were ignored by donors and agencies alike. 5 years on, thanks to the work of a consortium of scientists led by Robert E Black from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (the Maternal and Child Nutrition Study Group), we review the progress made against these findings and recommendations. Although some news is better than 5 years ago, there is still a deeply worrying gulf between country needs and global actions. But what is most different-an extraordinary opportunity as well as a severe challenge-is the political urgency of nutrition. This latest Lancet Series updates, with extensive new data, the contribution undernutrition in its various forms makes to child mortality and morbidity. Compared with 2008, the result is a radically.different picture of the relation between nutritional deficiencies and child health. The overall finding is that 3.1 million children younger than 5 years die every year from undernutrition; that is a staggering 45% of total child deaths in 2011.