Exceptionally detailed maps of child growth and education across Africa suggest that no single country is set to end childhood malnutrition by 2030. That target was set by the UN as a Sustainable Development Goal. However, the new maps, which give detail to the level of an individual village, show that almost every nation has at least one region where children's health is improving.

Two studies have mapped child growth rates and educational attainment for women of reproductive age - tracking progress in both in 51 countries between 2000 and 2015. The scientists targeted these two factors in particular because they are important predictors of child mortality.

Prof Simon Hay, a global health researcher from the University of Washington in the US and his team pieced together data from community-level surveys and produced a series of 5km by 5km scale maps, showing child growth and educational attainment across Africa over the 15-year span of the study which also showed large disparities within individual countries. But by mapping these in such detail, scientists say policymakers will have the evidence to direct their resources.

Progress in Africa has never before been mapped in this level of detail and Prof Hay said that making the data openly available and providing "the best information we can" would help to direct resources towards the populations most in need.

Read the full article about children's health in Africa by Victoria Gill at BBC.