Nutrition: there's no quick fix for hunger or obesity
As the world this week marks 500 days until the end of the millennium development goals (MDGs), executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (Gain) Marc Van Ameringen comments on where there is room for improvement in addressing the issue of malnutrition. One of the criticisms for the MDGs has been their granularity: complex needs broken down into simple deliverables often ignoring the complex solutions needed. “In some communities, you will find an overweight woman, a stunted child and the whole family is micronutrient deficient. How do we deal with that? We need a much more stratified map of where people are and what their nutritional status is,” said Van Ameringen. He advocates for adopting a value chain approach; thinking about where we can insert nutrition at every point of the supply chain, and using a multistakeholder approach.