Slides Framework

Nutrition

Saving lives, changing lives through good nutrition

Poor nutrition remains an immense global problem. While 47 million children suffer from wasting and 144 million are stunted from chronic malnutrition, 2 billion people are vitamin or mineral deficient, and one in three people are overweight or obese. Conflict, natural disasters and economic factors exacerbate the problem.

Malnutrition at its extremes can be a matter of life and death (half of all child deaths are linked to it), and in the long term can stop people, communities and countries from reaching their full potential. Nutrition is one of the foundations of economic and human development, which is why US$1 invested in nutrition gives a US$16 return.

Against this backdrop, WFP works tirelessly to ensure people can access and afford diverse, nutritious diets in all contexts. And when necessary, delivers programmes to prevent and treat malnutrition in those most at risk: young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and people living with HIV and tuberculosis.

WFP Nutrition in numbers

In 2019, WFP and its partners continued to prioritize nutrition, implementing a range of programmes in 74 countries. Programmes to treat and prevent malnutrition (nutrition-specific assistance) were delivered to 17.2 million people – an increase of 9 percent from 2018. Nearly half of these were in countries experiencing level 2 or level 3 (the most severe) emergencies, and 80 percent were in countries facing a humanitarian crisis.

We prioritized women and children with emphasis on the critical 1,000 days between conception and a child’s second birthday, when nutrition lays the foundations for a lifetime. WFP’s assistance ensured 10.8 million children, 6.4 million women, and 400,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and TB, could access healthy diets or, when necessary, malnutrition treatment and prevention interventions.

The continued use and scale up of fortified staple foods to address vitamin and mineral deficiencies (hidden hunger) remained a priority for WFP as one of the most cost-effective ways to achieve SDG2. In 2019, WFP supported governments to provide 47 million people with access to fortified rice through retail channels and 200 million people via government-led social safety nets.

  • 74

    countries

    partnered with WFP to treat and prevent malnutrition in their populations.

  • 200

    million people

    had access to micronutrient-fortified rice via WFP-supported government social safety nets.

  • 14

    million people

    were reached with nutrition messages using advanced social and behaviour change communication techniques.

    • Bringing healthy diets within the reach of all

    While food helps people survive, healthy diets let them thrive. That’s why in every context, WFP works to improve people’s access to nutritious diets.

    Through ‘nutrition-sensitive’ programming, WFP works through complementary sections such as agriculture in order to address the complex underlying drivers of malnutrition.

    In 2019, WFP implemented nutrition-sensitive programmes in 69 countries, leveraging its activities such as smallholder agricultural market support and school feeding to deliver better nutrition outcomes and create nutrition-focused food systems.

    Through this Fill the Nutrient Gap analysis, WFP carried out comprehensive situation analyses in seven countries to understand the barriers to healthy diets and propose context-specific solutions.

    The world committed to ending malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 through the Sustainable Development Goals. WFP, through its part, will continue to scale up its nutrition activities to deliver live-saving nutrition support where needed and bring nutritious diets within reach of the most vulnerable people on the planet.