US says providing $9b to curb global malnutrition

Dr. Rajiv Shah, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator has outlined the US Government’s long term leadership in the effort to reduce malnutrition around the world.

According to Dr. Shah, the US government is providing more than $1 billion for nutrition specific interventions and nearly $9 billion on nutrition-sensitive activities over fiscal year of 2012-2014.

“These investments support and accelerate trends in stunting reduction, aiming to reduce stunting by 20% over five years in the areas where Feed the Future works, translating into 2 million fewer stunted children, and in support of World Health Assembly goal to reduce childhood stunting by 40% by 2025,” Shah said in London June 10, 2013 during a global nutrition-focused event.

Dr Shah, on behalf of the US government, signed on to the Global Nutrition for Growth Compact.

The Compact endorses several goals such as Reaching 500 million pregnant women and children under two by 2020; Averting 20 million additional cases of stunting by 2020; and Preventing 1.7 million deaths by 2020 through efforts to reduce stunting, increase breastfeeding, improve zinc supplementation, and boost coverage of treatment of severe acute malnutrition.

By Dorcas Appiah