2015 The Challenges of Scaling Up Multiple Micronutrient Interventions

Abstract

With eight hundred million still living in extreme poverty and hunger, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were created with a vision of a world with less poverty, hunger and disease; improved survival prospects for mothers and children; greater primary education; equal opportunities and empowerment for women; and a healthier environment. While several countries have progressed towards achieving the MDGs, many interventions have nonetheless failed to improve the quality of life in a large number of the world’s countries (Figure 1). To be sure, despite enormous in-country and international efforts to achieve the first MDG of ending extreme poverty and hunger, an estimated 800 million people still face these challenges daily. One in seven children under the age of fi ve years is still underweight (i.e., they weigh less than 2 standard deviations of the population average for their age and sex), and one in four children worldwide, or approximately 161 million children, are still stunted (i.e., they are below 2 standard deviations in height for age and sex).