CSOs reflected on Gavi’s past and future at the Mid-Term Review. Speaking on the opening plenary panel, Chris Dendys of RESULTS Canada said, “we need to identify better why children are being missed and how we reach them regardless of where they live.”
The Global Financing Facility (GFF) presents an opportunity for governments to increase investments in the building blocks for healthy development and progress on RMNCAH-N. The GFF We Want Campaign, led by WACI Health, captured and elevated civil society’s voice in the lead up to November’s US$1 billion replenishment.
This World Food Day, ACTION is reflecting on progress made over the last five years to fill the gap in financing for nutrition by releasing Following the Funding: Nutrition for Growth — Progress Report because now is the time for funders to consider their role in reaching global targets to reduce malnutrition and what it will take to get there.
I grew up in a village where malnutrition was a big issue, where our neighbors did not have enough food and had a big number of children—some of them stunted. The stunted children repeated countless number of classes. Imagine how painful it is to live in a village and have 38 percent of children, which is 2 in 5, stunted, affecting their academic performance and ultimately their productivity in the future.
The congregation of health leaders at the 2018 World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, is an opportune time to shine a light on the problem of stunting in Africa and for African governments to do more to reverse the negative trends on the continent. While Africa’s land is fertile and productive, children here experience the highest rates of stunting. The contradiction can be explained by the fact that good nutrition is dependent on good agricultural practices.
The words “global health crisis” evoke the image of aid workers rushing to prevent the spread of a pandemic disease or virus such as Ebola or Zika — a widespread emergency. Malnutrition is a global health crisis of epic proportions that is linked to 45 percent of deaths among children under five years of age in low- and middle-income countries. Lack of appropriate nutrition extends the cycle of poverty; exposes the world’s youngest children to more death and disease; and inhibits physical, cognitive, and emotional development.
A Pakistani female vaccine worker carries a cooler of polio vaccines to the remote town of Harnai. Today she will have to administer 50 vaccines. This is her third visit to Harnai in three months and she now knows all the children there. Some of them wait for her up the street. They giggle and scatter as she approaches. She’s on a first name basis with many of the mothers, and some already feel like friends.
It’s my job to know about early childhood development and the impact of nutrition on the first 1000 days of a child’s life, but I was surprised how much I learned when I had my first child. Here are a few lessons from my pregnancy and first months of parenthood that have added depth and clarity to my work advocating on nutrition: