ReliefWeb

Executive Summary

In the past two decades, the world has achieved huge progress for children. Between 1990 and 2011, the numbers of children dying under the age of five fell faster than ever before – from 12 million to 6.9 million. Since 1999 the number of children in primary school has gone up by over 40 million.

However, malnutrition threatens to undermine these impressive advances. In spite of the reduction in children dying, the global crisis of child mortality remains unsolved – 19,000 children continue to die each day from preventable causes. Meanwhile, a global crisis in education means 130 million children are in school but failing to learn even the basics. They are left without the core skills and abilities they need to fulfil their potential and to lead fulfilling, productive lives.

Child malnutrition is a key factor underlying both these crises. Malnutrition is an underlying cause of 2.3 million children’s deaths a year, and for millions more children contributes to failures in cognitive and educational development. As a result, the life chances of millions of children around the world are devastated. The potential cost to the global economy runs to billions of dollars.

In the past two decades, progress in tackling malnutrition has been pitifully slow while advances in tackling many other issues highlighted by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have been far faster. Save the Children’s Child Development Index has shown overall progress on the education component was 32% and on the health component 23% (from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s), compared with an improvement in the nutrition component of only 13%.

But in June 2013 global leaders have a historic opportunity to make a major breakthrough in the fight against hunger. By taking decisive action to tackle the malnutrition crises head on, they can end the deaths of millions of children a year as a result of malnutrition and prevent the many millions more lives being devastated by its effects. In this report we demonstrate how investment in nutrition is not only the right thing to do, it is a down-payment on future prosperity. The evidence we present shows that preventing malnutrition of children and women in the crucial 1,000-day window – from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until her child’s second birthday – could greatly increase children’s ability to learn and to earn.

New findings on the impact of malnutrition on children’s learning

The long-term consequences of child malnutrition for health and resilience to disease are well established. But this report presents new evidence, commissioned by Save the Children, which for the first time identifies the impact of malnutrition on educational outcomes across a range of countries.

The Young Lives study follows 3,000 children in four countries throughout their childhood. At key points in their lives, the children are interviewed and tested to determine their educational abilities, confidence, hopes and aspirations.

New analysis of the survey shows that children who are malnourished at the start of life are severely disadvantaged in their ability to learn. Compared with non-stunted children, stunted children: • score 7% lower on maths tests • are 19% less likely to be able to read a simple sentence aged 8, and 12% less likely to be able to write a simple sentence • are 13% less likely to be in the appropriate grade for their age at school.

These impacts remain after controlling children’s backgrounds, including where they grew up and went to school.