2012 G20 Watch
Date: Mon, 2012-06-18
Location: Los Cabos, Mexico
Hosting organization: The Government of Mexico
Global Partnerships's Open Letter
Global Health Partnerships write to the G20 leaders
by: 1000 Days, GAIN and The Partnershiys, GAIN and The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health
Recognizing that existing global food systems have failed to address malnutrition, and that continuing food price volatility has limited the access of vulnerable populations to sustainable nutritious diets, we note the importance of continuing our efforts to address malnutrition as a determinant of health, as a marker of social inequities and as an underlying barrier to sustainable economic growth and development 1.
We have recognized the impact of investing in nutrition and committed in 2011 to address the multiple causes of food and nutrition insecurity. We hereby reconfirm our commitment to the movement for Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) and will increase our efforts to scale up direct nutrition interventions and integrate nutrition in relevant policies including gender, agriculture, health, food security, research, poverty reduction, social protection, and education.
We commit to achieving the global nutrition targets set forth by the WHO, and will measure our national efforts in promoting food and nutrition security against the following targets: a 40% reduction of the global number of children under five who are stunted , a 30% reduction of low birth weight , a reduction by half of anaemia in women of reproductive age, no increase in the prevalence of overweight children and an increase in exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life.
In particular, we will target action and investment to improve nutrition for mothers and children during the critical 1,000 days from pregnancy to age 2, when better nutrition can have a lifelong impact on a child’s future and help achieve long-term progress in global health and development.
We recognize the importance of global health partnerships to save lives, improve health and provide long-term economic benefits to people in the poorest countries and will work with partners such as 1000 Days, GAIN and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health to engage new actors from both public and private sectors and civil society in efforts to improve nutrition status of women and children.
1Poor nutrition, in the form of under nutrition, over weight/obesity and micronutrient deficiency, results in underweight and stunted children, anemia and non-communicable diseases. These and other poor nutrition related health outcomes result in weak immune systems, poor cognitive development, low productivity and decreased life expectancies and therefore adverse impact on our economies. Malnutrition leads to losses in GDP of as much as 2-3% per year in low income countries. Adults affected by malnutrition earn almost 20% less than their non-affected counterparts. It is globally estimated that the direct cost of child malnutrition is 20-40 billion USD per year.