Child malnutrition is no stranger to high-income countries. In Canada and the U.S., food insecurity affects one in six children under 18, but policies to address the issue are still lacking.
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Articles on Childhood stunting
Displaying 1 - 20 of 25 articles
Problems caused by malnutrition - such as obesity - are on the rise in South Africa, with serious health consequences.
There is no substance to the view that poor people are lazy and prefer to live on handouts from the state rather than seek work.
Nutrition for kids is key to achieving economic development.
Hunger is not the cause of the current social upheaval. But, taken along with other deep-rooted structural inequalities, it provides additional fuel for socio-political conflagration.
Harsh socio-environmental factors, especially when they happen in the early years of a child’s life, can establish a developmental “biology of misfortune”.
As the global South transitions to a predominantly urban future, food offers a way to understand the role of cities in future development.
Poor nutrition stunts children’s growth and hollows out their life chances.
There is no clear delineation of roles and responsibilities relating to the integration of clean water, sanitation, safe hygiene and nutritional status.
Despite the poverty rate falling, 30.8% of children are still undernourished.
A third of South African children live below the food poverty line. The fact that many caregivers can’t work because of the lockdown will worsen food insecurity. Here’s what needs to be done.
The health and rights of children and adolescents, particularly the most marginalised and vulnerable, are under immediate threat from climate change, corporate actors and growing inequities.
Nigeria has an alarming number of stunted children. This can hold back the country’s long-term productivity if there is no intervention.
South Africa has made significant progress with some of the sustainable development goal targets. But with others its lagging far behind.
There have been a variety of approaches to tackle malnutrition. The continent needs to learn from past mistakes across the world.
South African learners receiving two meals, despite being from arguably poorer backgrounds, had statistically significantly lower stunting levels than children receiving only one meal.
Tackling the challenge of stunting in South Africa needs a convergence of science and policy along with better coordination at all levels of government.
Poor childhood conditions, such as exposure to poverty and stunting, are associated with long-term disadvantages to health, education, social adjustment and earnings.
An index developed to gauge progress towards the sustainable development goals and their targets shows that nine of the world’s worst performing countries are in Africa.
There are several lessons that the world can learn from Brazil about how to rapidly reduce child stunting in 10 years.
Top contributors
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Director DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security, University of the Western Cape
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Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
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Lecturer in Comparative Human Biology, University of Cambridge
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PhD researcher, University of Cape Town
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Lecturer in Global Health, UNSW Sydney
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Associate Principal Research Fellow, Burnet Institute
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Associate Professor in Environment and Development, Australian National University
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Professor of Economics and South African Research Chair in the Economics of Social Policy, Stellenbosch University
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Senior Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research Center
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Head of department: Human Kinetics and Ergonomics, Rhodes University
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Director, Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council
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Professor in Food Security; Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development, University of Pretoria
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Professor in the Institute for Life Course Health Research, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University
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CIGI chair in Gloal Migration and Development, Professor of Geography and Enviromental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University
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Professor of Social Development Studies, University of Johannesburg
