In 2018, 5.3 million children under the age of five died, with undernutrition being the a key cause in nearly half those deaths. At the same time, low- and middle-income countries are wintessing a rise in child overweight and obesity. One in three children globally suffers from one or more forms of the triple-burden of malnutrition – undernutrition, mirconutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity. In October 2019, the Secretary of State for International Developmet recommitted to ending preventable deaths of mothers, babies and children in the developing world by 2030.
The Tokyo Nutrition for Growth (N4G) 2020 Summit offers us an opportunity to take a significant step towards delivering on that pledge. This document is the International Coalition for Advocacy on Nutrition (ICAN) UK’s recommendations to the UK Government for making this a reality.
The UK working group of ICAN (ICAN UK) focuses specifically on improving the UK’s role in addressing global malnutrition.