Around the world, momentum is building around improving global nutrition. This June, a variety of events will highlight why nutrition matters, especially for food security.
G-8 leaders this year welcomed the addition of Benin, Malawi, and Nigeria to the New Alliance, joining existing members Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania who have negotiated rigorous Country Cooperation Frameworks for accelerating investment that include policy reforms, private investment intentions, and donor commitments to align predictable assistance flows behind recipient country priorities.
I was shocked! Living in a bubble, I rarely paid attention to how devastating the numbers were (about 1 child dying every 4 seconds)! Although written a few years ago, that article was the catalyst for my quest to learn more about global nutrition and it’s effect on women and children.
Co-chaired by David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Bruce McNamer of TechnoServe, the working group is tasked with developing an action plan for further deepening the engagement of civil society partners in Feed the Future. Read on to find out how you can provide input.
With support from USAID through Feed the Future, Sambo has received training and assistance to improve his approach to farming and feeding his family. Moving confidently around the field, Sambo explains that the local dolikh leaves are being reintroduced for their high vitamin content and shows off a pruning tool he purchased for his fruit-bearing trees. Sambo takes pride in the fact that he can grow everything his family needs.
This is the first group of Response Volunteers to collaborate in the USAID and Peace Corps partnership to support food security in Guatemala, which started in September 2012. This partnership supports the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative, which aims to assist millions of vulnerable women, children, and family members – mostly small-scale farmers – to escape hunger and poverty.
I knew the importance of nutrition in those early stages of childhood, even before my kids were born. What I didn’t realize is that if a child isn’t given the proper nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life, from pregnancy to age 2, his growth could be stunted and his performance in school could be affected.
When I last wrote a piece for FrontLines, I described USAID efforts to do development differently, particularly to help countries feed their own people and drive economic growth. In just a short amount of time since then, we’re already seeing results—proof that our modern approach to development is working.
