Countries that fail to tackle the malnourishment and poor growth of their children face being named and shamed at the World Economic Forum as part of a mission to rid the world of stunting, the president of the World Bank told Sarah Boseley.
Jim Yong Kim said that stunting, which refers to children with a height well below the average for their age, is a humanitarian disaster and an economic issue that holds back nations. Kim said he would use the forum in Davos to point the finger at countries that neglect the issue: 24% of the world’s 667 million children under five are so under-nourished they are too short for their age.
He highlighted one of the world’s success stories on tackling stunting: Peru, where Dan Collyns reports that stunting among children under five has dropped from 29% to 14% in the seven years between 2007 and 2014, through a coordinated programme of cash transfers tied to regular health checks for children.
However, all countries are lagging behind on the nine global health targets for 2030, according to a report published in the Lancet, including the elimination of major disease epidemics and the reduction of health issues such as childhood obesity.
Elsewhere on the site
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UK officials cite ‘heightened scrutiny’ as cost of aid fraud breaks £1m barrier
Who’s WHO? The six candidates for next World Health Organisation chief
Women gain ground in Jordan election despite yawning gender gap
More than a quarter of UK aid budget to fall prey to rival ministries by 2020
Chess centre in Kampala slum prepares children for next move
From civil war to gang war: violence drives Salvadorans to makeshift camp
EU signs deal to deport unlimited numbers of Afghan asylum seekers
Opinion
Irina Bokova: At last the destruction of heritage is recognised as weapon of war
Jonathan Glennie: If Colombia is to realise its potential, people must vote for peace
Oluseun Onigbinde: Will Nigeria be left to repent at leisure if national assets are sold?
Multimedia
‘My kids hate me … they remind me I sold them’: slavery and child labour in Ghana – in pictures
Sugaring the pill: tackling taboos on contraception in Nigeria – in pictures
What you said
On Jonathan Glennie’s opinion piece about the vote on the peace accord in Colombia, wightanger said:
Sadly, unlike fellow Latin states, Colombia still has had no land reforms with about 40% of the country still “quasi-owned” (including how/who to vote for) by the traditional rural landowning elite and notably only around 15% of the total population actually voting.
Let’s hope that peace, both on paper and on the ground, will become a reality for ordinary Colombians, with some real steps towards both land reform and redress of a glaring inequality for such a small overall population.
Highlight from the blogosphere
Writing for Humanosphere, Joanne Lu looks at a new report from Plan International, which says that equality is impossible without better data on girls, and that the lack of credible statistics is rendering them invisible to governments and policymakers.
And finally …
Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and @LizFordGuardian on Twitter, and join Guardian Global development on Facebook.
