Type: Advocacy

Wasting Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Children who suffer from wasting as a result of severe malnutrition are at risk of serious illness and death. Therefore, urgent action is needed to reach the target by ensuring that severely malnourished children are treated for wasting and that more is done to prevent this life-threatening condition.

Breastfeeding Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Exclusive breastfeeding—defined as the practice of only giving an infant breast-milk for the first 6 months of life (no other food or water) —is a cornerstone of child survival and child health because it provides essential, irreplaceable nutrition for a child’s growth and development. Globally, only 38% of infants are exclusively breastfed and it is estimated that sub-optimal breastfeeding practices contributes to 800,000 deaths of children annually.

Much remains to be done to make exclusive breastfeeding the norm for infant feeding and reach the target to ensure that at least half of the world’s infants are exclusively breastfed in the first six months.

Childhood Overweight Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

There has been a dramatic rise in the numbers of children under 5 years of age who are overweight. Between 2000 and 2013, the number of overweight children worldwide increased from 32 million to 42 million and it is now estimated that the number of children under 5 years of age who are overweight will increase to 70 million.

Low Birth Weight Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Low birth weight continues to be a significant public health problem globally and is associated with a range of both short- and long term consequences. Overall, it is estimated that 15% to 20% of all births worldwide are low birth weight, representing more than 20 million births a year.

The goal is to achieve a 30% reduction in the number of infants born low birth weight by the year 2025. This would translate to a reduction from approximately 20 million to about 14 million infants with low weight at birth.

Anaemia Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Anemia impairs health and well-being in women and increases the risk of poor maternal and infant outcomes. Anemia affects half a billion women of reproductive age worldwide. While the causes of anemia are variable, it is estimated that half of cases are due to iron deficiency. Greater progress is required to reach the global target of a 50% reduction of anemia in women of reproductive age by 2025.

Stunting Policy Brief

The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with 1,000 Days, developed a series of six policy briefs linked to each of the global nutrition targets. These policy briefs provide essential guidance to policymakers regarding actions needed in order to achieve progress toward improving maternal and child nutrition and achieving the global nutrition targets by 2025.

Childhood stunting is one of the most significant impediments to human development, affecting approximately 159 million children under the age of 5 around the world. Stunting, or being too short for one’s age, is a largely irreversible outcome of inadequate nutrition and repeated bouts of infection during the first 1000 days of a child’s life. It is detrimental to the health and development of both individuals and societies and urgent progress is needed to reach the target to reduce by 40% the number of children affected by stunting.

WHO Global Nutrition Targets Policy Brief

Recognizing that accelerated global action is needed to address the pervasive and corrosive problem of the double burden of malnutrition, in 2012 the World Health Assembly Resolution 65.6 endorsed a Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition, which specified a set of six global nutrition targets.