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Welcome to the archives of Malnutrition Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on September 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on malnutrition. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
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Read features, analysis and in-depth articles from Malnutrition Deeply correspondents, including stories about stunting, maternal health, obesity, international aid, innovation and policy issues.
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Kenya’s school lunch program provides critical nutrition for hundreds of thousands of children. But a change in the program’s administration has educators worried about the future of the initiative.
As human milk banks have proliferated, it has raised other concerns – technical, religious and political – and local policymakers would benefit from an international framework that would help them set regulations.
There is no end in sight to South Sudan’s conflict, which has destroyed communities and upended the economy. Even when the bullets stop, high rates of stunting – caused by persistent food shortages – will make it difficult for the country to recover.
In India, over half of adolescent girls are anemic. Many are never treated, though, because health systems ignore them.
Cadbury makes money off of selling sweets, but now its corporate parent wants to help teach Nigerian children how to eat healthier. That effort, which involves partnering with a key nutrition advocacy group, has raised questions about the role of the private sector in fighting malnutrition
Through an app, Chowberry, local groups can identify food that is close to its expiration date at nearby grocery stores. They can purchase this food for a reduced price and distribute it to people who might otherwise not get enough to eat.
Before funding for a USAID project disappears, the director of food security and nutrition wants to apply some of the program’s lessons on nutrition-sensitive agriculture to broader food systems.
Officials are increasingly looking to climate data to predict droughts, famines and heat waves and to help plan for – and prevent – the rising rates of moderate and severe malnutrition that have been shown to follow.
Brazil’s successful milk bank system, which relies on donated milk, is now being adopted across Latin America.
Lucky Iron Fish were supposed to be the answer to reducing Cambodia’s persistent anemia problem. But there are now questions about whether the intervention actually addresses the problem it was intended to help solve.
Nutrition advocates have accused the U.S. of siding with private sector interests, sparking a controversy over what they assumed would be a routine effort to provide advice on breastfeeding and the use of breast milk substitutes.
The country has developed an ambitious plan to tackle overweight and obesity, but has seen some of its efforts derailed by industry objections. Now advocates are pushing for legislation that would codify the plan.
Faced with rising rates of non-communicable diseases, Kenyan activists have turned to educating young people on how to eat healthier. Now the government is taking a lesson from those efforts.
On the coast of Senegal, fish stocks have fallen by 80 percent in the past year alone. The women fish processors of the region have been hit hardest, with worrying consequences for food security and nutrition.
There is a growing recognition among policymakers that ignoring adolescent malnutrition undermines child nutrition efforts and sets young people up for less success or more complications later in life.
With traditional nutrition programs failing to correct anemia and other forms of malnutrition, researchers are now exploring what role the microbiome in the gut plays in perpetuating these problems.
In the second part of our series on cash transfers, we explore how opposition to an experiment made the Indian government confront the drawbacks and look for lessons for future interventions.
It is clear that cash transfers alone will not end acute or chronic malnutrition, leaving researchers to examine how they can be effectively integrated as part of a larger response.
Efforts to meet nutrition needs with eggs have run afoul of some lunch providers who say including the food would violate their cultural beliefs.
Iron supplementation has been the traditional response, but experts say there is a need for a wider range of coordinated interventions.
Heavier girls are deemed more beautiful and likelier to find a good husband in the West African country.
A comprehensive nutrition response has been stalled by a lack of data on the scale of the problem and ongoing political crises in Colombia that are dominating that government’s agenda.
A persistent lack of awareness about the dangers of malnutrition among patients is contributing to higher mortality rates and longer hospital stays.
Marine scientist Edward Allison says his research shows that in some developing countries, fish farming is not benefiting nutritionally vulnerable communities. That has triggered a backlash from other researchers and the aquaculture industry.
Traditional emergency responses have focused on providing food and medical care to address hunger. But researchers say there may be an opportunity to do more.
New research underscores the fact that malnutrition, while rampant in middle-income countries, is often ignored by donors, leaving those countries to bear the burden of nutrition programs.
As the Venezuelan government blocks international aid, one agency estimates 280,000 child deaths this year could be linked to malnutrition.
New parents say they do not have the resources or the knowledge to provide their children with the nutrition they need. And the government has no strategy to assist them.
New data shows no African countries are on track to meet 2030 targets to end hunger and malnutrition. A new initiative, led by African heads of state, looks to change that.
The East African country has long prioritized curbing malnutrition, but when the results were coming in too slow, officials decided to evaluate just where its nutrition spending was – and was not – going.
To encourage exclusive breastfeeding, Egyptian officials are limiting access to subsidized formula. But some mothers say the government has gone too far in restricting their choice.
The East African country has turned to biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potatoes to help curb vitamin A deficiency, urging people to make the root vegetable a regular part of their diet. The rest of the world is watching.
Women in the developing world are increasingly suffering from obesity. Experts aren’t exactly sure why – or what to do about it.
Botswana has ambitious plans to address high rates of stunting and other forms of undernutrition among children. Those efforts are being hurt by a lack of information on who needs the services, according to nutrition officials.
India is not a signatory to international refugee conventions, which it is using as a cover to prevent Rohingya from accessing programs that would help them with food and healthcare.
As sanctions slow relief efforts, UNICEF is one of only a few aid agencies with access to the isolated country, which suffered famine in the mid-1990s that killed up to 3 million people.
Taxes on sugary beverages have become a popular approach for countries looking to reduce overweight and obesity. But it is a problem that will require more than one solution.
The nutrition community is focused on consolidating gains made in 2017, while developing new partnerships, spurring new innovations and ensuring no one is left behind.
Zimbabwean officials want the food industry to help solve the country’s micronutrient shortages by fortifying popular products. The companies say the cost is too high.
The Sustainable Development Goals set 169 global targets, but offer little advice on how to prioritize them. A debate is emerging over where nutrition-focused objectives should rank.
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