Feed the Future Newsletter, Issue 137, July 2024

When we put children’s nutrition first, we see results. A well-nourished mother has a much greater chance of surviving pregnancy and her child of growing up healthy and productive. Good nutrition early in life locks in the potential of our future generations. On the other hand, poor nutrition can have lasting impacts and can trap people into an intergenerational cycle of malnourishment, disease and poverty.

Investing in nutrition and food safety not only saves lives (every dollar invested in nutrition yields $16 in benefits across health and productivity) but is also essential for economic prosperity. Conversely, poor nutrition limits the productivity of the global workforce. Worldwide, malnutrition costs $3.5 trillion annually. Undernutrition has severe lifelong impacts on brain development and contributes to cyclical poverty. Malnourished children perform worse in school and suffer from productivity losses as adults. This can reduce a nation’s economic advancement by at least 8 percentage points.

These wide-ranging and long-lasting effects is why Feed the Future is not only focused on feeding people, but nourishing them. This month, learn more about the role of nutrition in Feed the Future’s work, plus other updates and news.