The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara
Childhood undernutrition manifests itself in various ways including stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies. Stunting (being too short for the child’s age) captures a state of linear growth retardation and cumulative growth impairment due to chronic nutritional deficiency and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Artículo preliminar |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
International Food Policy Research Institute
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143365 |
| _version_ | 1855534179184279552 |
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| author | Haile, Beliyou Arndt, Channing Ru, Yating Alderman, Harold Puett, Chloe |
| author_browse | Alderman, Harold Arndt, Channing Haile, Beliyou Puett, Chloe Ru, Yating |
| author_facet | Haile, Beliyou Arndt, Channing Ru, Yating Alderman, Harold Puett, Chloe |
| author_sort | Haile, Beliyou |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Childhood undernutrition manifests itself in various ways including stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies. Stunting (being too short for the child’s age) captures a state of linear growth retardation and cumulative growth impairment due to chronic nutritional deficiency and illness that deprive a fetus and child of required nutrients. Despite the global decline in stunting prevalence by over 25% since 1990, an estimated 22% of the 150 million children are currently stunted with significant regional and within region disparity. Stunting is largely an irreversible outcome that stifles individuals from fulfilling their full development and economic potential. It increases the risk of impaired brain development with implications for cognitive and non-cognitive functions, educational performance, productivity, and chronic diseases later in life. It also increases the frequency and severity of exposure to common infections with one in seven under 5 deaths linked to it. Stunting and other forms of undernutrition costs countries billions of dollars in lost revenue and healthcare outlays. This report presents results from a cost benefit analysis (CBA) of a package of nutrition-specific investments studied as part of The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and Copenhagen Consensus exercise. The investments tackle the immediate causes of child undernutrition ─ inadequate intake of nutrients, diseases, and infections and include behavior change communication programs to promote breastfeeding and complementary feeding; supplementation of crucial micronutrients to pregnant women and young children; provision of complementary foods to children; and management of severe acute malnutrition. We focus on two developing regions with the highest burden of stunting globally ─ Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara (SSA). Economic benefits are modelled for a cohort of children born between 2015 and 2030 who will join the workforce at 18 years of age and retire when 60 years old. Two benefit streams (the value of avoided premature child mortality and lifetime earnings gains) and two costs elements (the cost of the nutrition investments and of delivering schooling) are considered. Benefit-cost (BC) ratios are estimated under alternative scenarios based on the returns to stunting reductions and cost elements considered. Besides discount rates previously used in the nutrition and economics literature (between 3% and 6%), we consider a 10% discount rate used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for the sake of comparability of economic returns to these nutritional investments with that of other sectoral investments by MCC. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace143365 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1433652025-11-06T07:08:38Z The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara Haile, Beliyou Arndt, Channing Ru, Yating Alderman, Harold Puett, Chloe child nutrition economic growth investment child health stunting agriculture micronutrient deficiencies malnutrition nutrition poverty Childhood undernutrition manifests itself in various ways including stunting, wasting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies. Stunting (being too short for the child’s age) captures a state of linear growth retardation and cumulative growth impairment due to chronic nutritional deficiency and illness that deprive a fetus and child of required nutrients. Despite the global decline in stunting prevalence by over 25% since 1990, an estimated 22% of the 150 million children are currently stunted with significant regional and within region disparity. Stunting is largely an irreversible outcome that stifles individuals from fulfilling their full development and economic potential. It increases the risk of impaired brain development with implications for cognitive and non-cognitive functions, educational performance, productivity, and chronic diseases later in life. It also increases the frequency and severity of exposure to common infections with one in seven under 5 deaths linked to it. Stunting and other forms of undernutrition costs countries billions of dollars in lost revenue and healthcare outlays. This report presents results from a cost benefit analysis (CBA) of a package of nutrition-specific investments studied as part of The Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Undernutrition and Copenhagen Consensus exercise. The investments tackle the immediate causes of child undernutrition ─ inadequate intake of nutrients, diseases, and infections and include behavior change communication programs to promote breastfeeding and complementary feeding; supplementation of crucial micronutrients to pregnant women and young children; provision of complementary foods to children; and management of severe acute malnutrition. We focus on two developing regions with the highest burden of stunting globally ─ Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara (SSA). Economic benefits are modelled for a cohort of children born between 2015 and 2030 who will join the workforce at 18 years of age and retire when 60 years old. Two benefit streams (the value of avoided premature child mortality and lifetime earnings gains) and two costs elements (the cost of the nutrition investments and of delivering schooling) are considered. Benefit-cost (BC) ratios are estimated under alternative scenarios based on the returns to stunting reductions and cost elements considered. Besides discount rates previously used in the nutrition and economics literature (between 3% and 6%), we consider a 10% discount rate used by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for the sake of comparability of economic returns to these nutritional investments with that of other sectoral investments by MCC. 2021-11-01 2024-05-22T12:13:38Z 2024-05-22T12:13:38Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143365 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Millennium Challenge Corporation Haile, Beliyou; Arndt, Channing; Ru, Yating; Alderman, Harold; and Puett, Chloe. 2021. The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara. IFPRI – MCC Technical Paper Series: Prioritizing Agricultural Investments for Income, Poverty Reduction, and Nutrition 7. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134787. |
| spellingShingle | child nutrition economic growth investment child health stunting agriculture micronutrient deficiencies malnutrition nutrition poverty Haile, Beliyou Arndt, Channing Ru, Yating Alderman, Harold Puett, Chloe The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title | The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title_full | The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title_fullStr | The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title_full_unstemmed | The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title_short | The economic returns to nutrition-specific investments in Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara |
| title_sort | economic returns to nutrition specific investments in southern asia and africa south of the sahara |
| topic | child nutrition economic growth investment child health stunting agriculture micronutrient deficiencies malnutrition nutrition poverty |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143365 |
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