World Bank Takes Action on Childhood Nutrition — Nearly Triples Direct Financing!


June 6, 2013

June 6, 2013
Washington, D.C. — Today the World Bank announced a broad package of measures to accelerate progress on malnutrition, which is related to nearly half of all deaths of children under five according to data released today in The Lancet. The World Bank committed to nearly tripling direct financing for maternal and early childhood nutrition programs, increasing the nutrition impact of its investments in agriculture, tracking stunting — a result of chronic undernutrition — in its accountability scorecard, and scaling up technical support for countries with high burdens of stunting or underweight children.

Joanne Carter, executive director of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund, released the following statement in response to the announcement.

“We welcome these important measures, and applaud the World Bank's leadership for its commitment to accelerating progress on nutrition. Undernutrition is both a terrible consequence of poverty and part of the poverty trap for tens of millions of families. Scaling up the response, particularly to tackle undernutrition in the 1000 day window of pregnancy to age two, will be a vital component in achieving World Bank president Jim Kim’s goal of a world without extreme poverty. Today’s announcement by the Bank means critical support for countries faced with high burdens of undernutrition and will hopefully leverage action by other donors and within domestic budgets of affected countries for aggressive concerted action.“This year, the World Bank’s donors will negotiate a framework for the replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries. These donors should ensure that IDA’s goals and indicators support and build upon the commitment to nutrition made by the World Bank today.”


RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund are sister organizations that, together, are a leading force in ending poverty in the United States and around the world. We create long-term solutions to poverty by supporting programs that address its root causes — lack of access to medical care, education, or opportunity to move up the economic ladder. We do this by empowering ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for the end of poverty in their communities, the media, and the halls of government. The collective voices of these passionate grassroots activists, coordinated with grass-tops efforts driven by our staff, leverage millions of dollars for programs and improved policies that give low-income people the tools they need to move out of poverty.

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