De-emphasize nutrition goals and targets in nutrition work: now

This paper examines the history and success of the current nutrition goals and targets in overcoming malnutrition. It argues that whilst these resolutions are useful to bring about new programme efforts, they shift the focus of attention to achieving the specified short- and/or long-term outcome(s). This is to the detriment of ensuring sustainable processes that will maintain those gains.

Paper posed several questions to be addressed:

• how can we more proactively incorporate the wider contextual issues that are relevant to nutrition during our discussions in international fora when they set the agenda for country programmes?
• how can we articulate goals and targets that reflect such a realignment without losing the emphasis on nutrition?
• how can goals promote nutrition more as an investment in human development, de-emphasising health and nutrition status outcomes?
• how can we ensure that donor countries buy into the longer term programme plans of recipient countries instead of attempting to reshape such plans to match the global goals?

The paper recommends that demphasising the current goals and targets would be the best way to reach more sustainable goals and targets.

[A part of SCN News devoted to nutrition goals and targets]