Abstrait

Nutrition at the center of a Healthy world- Taking the untraveled avenue

Mandla Stanley Makhanya

 According to the 2018 Global Nutrition Report, the burden of malnutrition across the world remains unacceptably high, and progress unacceptably slow. Malnutrition is a universal issue holding back development with undesirable human consequences. Globally, 151 million children are stunted, and 1.9 billion adults are overweight. The UN Decade of Action on Nutrition 2016–2025 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide global and national impetus to address malnutrition and expedite progress. Twelve out of the 17 SDGs require good nutrition in order to be met. The impact of nutrition on each of these SDGs will be discussed in detail to show that nutrition should be at the centre of achieving these SDGs and improve global health. Despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over recent decades, today’s children face an uncertain future. Climate change, ecological degradation, migrating populations, conflict, pervasive inequalities, and predatory commercial practices threaten the health and future of children in every country. Governments must harness coalitions across sectors to overcome ecological and commercial pressures to ensure children receive their rights and entitlements now and a liveable planet in the years to come. We have never been better equipped to end malnutrition, we know more than ever about what policies work, there is a strong political will in many countries and we have new and better data regarding tackling malnutrition, we will therefore explore this “untravelled avenue” to highlight the important role of nutrition in improving multiple aspects of health globally. Nutrition can and should be placed at the centre of the SDGs: at the heart of the concept of sustainability and our shared human endeavour in order to see improvement and change.