Over the past few weeks, leaders from government, business, private philanthropies, and foundations gathered in Europe and Africa to address the fact that nearly every country in the world is facing a nutrition-related challenge. From the Global Nutrition Summit in Milan to the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Global Gathering in Abidjan, the message was clear: urgent action and investment are needed to address the crisis of malnutrition in all its forms.

In fact, the intake of foods that undermine diet quality has increased faster than the intake of high-quality foods.

It is now widely understood that to fully address the multiple burdens of malnutrition, including stunting, we must not only look at nutrition-specific interventions but nutrition-sensitive ones as well. This is especially true for the multiple forms of malnutrition — overweight/obesity, micronutrient deficiency, and undernutrition. Increasingly, countries are experiencing two or three forms of malnutrition at the same time. The new Global Nutrition Report, launched in Milan, found that 88 percent of countries are facing a double or triple burden of malnutrition. These findings indicate that the problem isn’t just about access to food, but rather, access to nutritious food.

Read the source article on proper nutrition by John Beddington and John Kufuor at Devex International Development