Politicizing undernutrition critical to tackling major global problem

In this post in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog," Lawrence Haddad, director of the Institute of Development Studies, writes, "We must politicize undernutrition, which is still a major global problem, so that it gets the attention it deserves." He adds, "Three key elements of governance are critical to tackling undernutrition: capacity, accountability and responsiveness."

Haddad highlights two success stories on the politicization of nutrition from Brazil and Peru recently featured at a Care and Action Against Hunger event and writes, "First, we need real-time mapping of nutrition outcomes to give the media hooks to hang nutrition stories on and to give governments better information to hang policies on"; "Second, we need to track commitments to reduce undernutrition in spending, through policies and legislation, and on rights"; and, "Third, we need to experiment with community score cards to overcome the silence around poor service delivery" (10/17).