Malnutrition in Afghanistan : Scale,Scope, Causes, and Potential Response

Levitt, Emily ; Kostermans, Kees ; Laviolette, Luc ; Mbuya, Nkosinathi

World Bank

关键词: ACUTE MALNUTRITION;    ANEMIA;    ANEMIA TREATMENT;    BEHAVIOR CHANGE;    BIRTH DEFECTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-8441-1
RP-ID  :  57872

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This book has the potential tocontribute to a reversing of this trend, whereby activitiesin not only the health sector but also in other sectorsrelevant to nutrition will gain increased support andprominence in national development planning. South Asia hasby far the largest number of malnourished women andchildren, and no other region of the world has higher ratesof malnutrition. Malnutrition in childhood is the biggestcontributor to child mortality; a third of child deaths havemalnutrition as an underlying cause. For the survivingchildren, malnutrition has lifelong implications because itseverely reduces a child's ability to learn and to growto his or her full potential. Malnutrition thus leads toless productive adults and weaker national economicperformance. Therefore, the impact of malnutrition on asociety's productivity and well being and anation's long-term development is hard tounderestimate. For the South Asia region of the World Bank,malnutrition is a key development priority, and in thecoming years, the Bank intends to enhance dramatically itsresponse to this challenge. As a first step, a series ofcountry assessments such as this one are being carried out.These assessments will be used to reinforce the dialoguewith governments and other development partners to scale upan evidence-based response against malnutrition. To succeed,we will need to address the problem comprehensively, whichwill require engaging several sectors. This assessment ofmalnutrition in Afghanistan lays out the scale, scope, andcauses of the problem. The assessment also indicates keyelements of a potential response.