The World Bank says it will nearly triple direct financing for maternal and childhood nutrition programmes in developing countries in 2013-2014.
If so, the amount will be $600 million, up from $230 million in 2011-12, the global lender says.
An estimated 90 percent of this new funding $540 million will come from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.
The announcement came on Friday, a day before the Nutrition for Growth High-Level Event in London and ahead of the G-8 Summit in Northern Ireland later this month.
“Globally, 165 million children under age 5 are stunted as a result of malnutrition. This is the face of poverty,” World Bank’s President Jim Yong Kim was quoted as saying in a media release.
Investment in maternal and early childhood nutrition, he says, is one of the highest-return investments that one can make to end poverty and promote shared prosperity.
According to the media release, the projected increase is in addition to nutrition-sensitive investments the Bank Group is making in other sectors beyond health, such as agriculture, education, social protection, and water and sanitation.
Experts say addressing malnutrition is not a health issue only, it requires sectors like agriculture, water, sanitation, education, employment to work together.
Amid continuing global food price volatility, the Bank Group also announced that it will review agriculture activities with a view toward improving nutrition outcomes.
It also noted ‘excellent’ progress through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), where more than half of all projects directly address under-nutrition.
The Bank will also step up technical and analytical support to countries with the greatest prevalence of stunting or underweight children, and add stunting as a new indicator on the Bank Group’s Corporate Scorecard.
With 41 percent children under five years of age too small for their height, 16 percent wasted and 36 percent underweight, Bangladesh is one of the malnutrition burdened countries in the world.
Latest statistics show about 24 percent women are also suffering from chronic malnutrition.
Investment in nutrition can increase a country’s GDP by at least 2 to 3 percent annually as spending dollar in nutrition can result in a return of up to $30, experts say.
Source: bdnews24
