Greater DFID and EC leadership on chronic malnutrition: opportunities and constraints

This report by the Institute of Development Studies and commissioned by Save the Children UK (SC UK) assesses the commitment currently demonstrated by the United Kingdom (UK) Department For International Development (DFID) and the European Commission (EC) to reducing chronic malnutrition. The report finds that whilst chronic malnutrition is widely recognised by both DFID and the EC as crucial to reducing child mortality and morbidity, nutrition is seen as a supporting investment rather than a foundational one. The report identifies 10 reasons for this including: chronic malnutrition is seen as everybody’s business and nobody’s responsibility; it is difficult to track spending flows on nutrition and to attribute the impact of indirect nutrition interventions on nutrition statue.

The report concludes that DFID and the EC could do more on nutrition within the constraints under which they currently operate. In addition, there seem to be several opportunities for SC UK to support DFID and the EC in this regard. For instance the paper recommends that: SC UK lobby to get more nutrition indicators into key institutional reporting requirements; link malnutrition to governance and rights language; and pressure DFID and the EC to undertake a high-profile report on the Economics of Child Undernutrition.