Using evidence to inspire action
Undernutrition is the underlying cause of death for 2.6 million children a year; a third of all child deaths. Transform Nutrition is a consortium of international research partners. Using research-based evidence we aim to inspire effective action to address undernutrition. Find out what we do.
How can we create greater government and donor accountability for ending hunger and undernutrition? What is political commitment and how can we measure it?
On Wednesday 19 February 2014 Transform Nutrition held a seminar which presented the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) which ranks governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition. The index was created to provide greater transparency and public accountability by measuring what governments achieve, and where they fail, in addressing hunger and undernutrition. The HANCI research team introduced their metric and methods and present the data and findings from the project so far. You can listen to the seminar again here as it was livestreamed.
On Wednesday 22nd January Transform Nutrition held a seminar at the Institute of Development Studies. Stuart Gillespie (IFPRI ) and Nick Nisbett (IDS) talked about how in recent years, political discourse on the challenge of undernutrition has increased markedly, leading to stated commitments on the part of many national governments, international organizations and donors. But they suggested that our understanding of what constitutes an “enabling environment for nutrition” is not well developed, and the nutrition research paradigm has routinely neglected the politics of reducing malnutrition. This presentation derived from work conducted for the fourth paper from the Lancet Nutrition Series, released in June 2013.
A new blog has just been published in the Guardian by Transform Nutrition Research Director John Hoddinott and Harold Alderman, IFPRI. This investment makes good economic sense and can save children's lives explains why providing each mother and child with a package of interventions worth $100 would reduce undernutrition by 20% and boost the economy in the process.
Transform Nutrition partners Public Health Foundation of India have had their blog Tackling malnutrition in India: the role of higher education published in the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network to mark the launch of their new nutrition hub. The authors, Tanusree Paul and Shweta Khandelwal, discuss why India will struggle to improve its health profile without significant investments in training and research in public health nutrition.
