| Nutrition Balance Sheet |
| Goal |
Gains |
Unfinished Business |
| Malnutrition: reduction of severe and moderate malnutrition among under-five children by half |
- Malnutrition declined by 17 per cent in developing countries. South America achieved the goal with a 60 per cent reduction in underweight prevalence over the decade.
|
- 149 million children are still malnourished, two thirds of them in Asia. The absolute number of malnourished children has increased in Africa.
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| Breastfeeding: empowerment of all women to breastfeed their children exclusively for four to six months and to continue breastfeeding, with complementary food, well into the second year of life |
- Exclusive breastfeeding rates increased by nearly one fifth over the decade.
- Gains were also made in timely complementary feeding and continued breastfeeding into the second year of life.
|
- Only about half of all infants are exclusively breastfed for the first four months of life.
|
| Vitamin A deficiency: virtual elimination by the year 2000 |
- More than 40 countries are reaching the large majority of their children (over 70 per cent) with at least one high-dose vitamin A supplement a year. UNICEF estimates that as many as one million child deaths may have been prevented in this way in the last three years alone.
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- As many countries are discontinuing national polio immunization days, a new distribution system for vitamin A will have to be found.
|
| Iodine deficiency disorders: virtual elimination |
- Some 72 per cent of households in the developing world are using iodized salt, compared to less than 20 per cent at the beginning of the decade. As a result, 90 million newborns are protected yearly from significant loss in learning ability.
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- There are still 37 countries where less than half the households consume iodized salt.
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| Low birth weight: reduction of the rate of low birth weight (2.5 kilograms (kg) or less) to less than 10 per cent |
- To date, 57 developing countries have low-birth-weight levels below 10 per cent.
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- 11 million babies in South Asia and 3.6 million babies in sub-Saharan Africa are born each year with low birth weight.
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| Growth monitoring: growth promotion and regular growth monitoring among children to be institutionalized in all countries by the end of the 1990s |
- A majority of developing countries have implemented growth monitoring and promotion activities using various approaches.
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- Growth monitoring information is often not used as a basis for community, family or government action.
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| Household food security: Dissemination of knowledge and supporting services to increase food production |
- The number of people in developing countries lacking sufficient calories in their diets has decreased marginally.
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- In sub-Saharan Africa, about one third of the population lack sufficient food.
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