Published in The Huffington Post 16 November 2009 – Today,
nearly 200 million children under the age of five who live in
the developing world suffer from stunted growth as a result of
chronic maternal and childhood undernutrition. Undernutrition
steals a child's strength and makes illnesses that the body
might otherwise fight off far more dangerous. But far more
devastating is the fact that more than one-third of the children
who die from pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses could have
survived had they not been undernourished. The 1,000 days from
conception until a child's second birthday are the most critical
for a child's development. Nutritional deficiencies during this
critical period can reduce the ability to fight and survive
disease, and can impair their social and mental capacities.
Those who survive often suffer poorer physical health throughout
their lives, and damaged cognitive abilities that limit their
capacity to learn and to earn a decent income. They become
trapped in an intergenerational