PRB Receives Funding for Raising the Visibility of Malnutrition
Contact: Rhonda Smith, 202-939-5427; rhondas@prb.org
PRB Receives Funding for Raising the Visibility of Malnutrition
Washington, DC, Dec. 9, 2010 -- The Population Reference Bureau has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for RENEW: Reenergizing Nutrition—Expanding Worldwide. This global initiative will help raise the visibility of malnutrition in mothers and children.
Malnutrition in mothers and children, defined as being underweight, having slowed linear growth, or having vitamin and mineral (micronutrient) deficiencies, is the underlying cause of 3.5 million deaths and 35 percent of the disease burden in children under age 5.
"Because malnutrition does not usually play the most direct role in illness and death, alleviation of malnutrition rarely attracts the level of attention and resources given to specific disease programs," says William P. Butz, president and CEO of PRB. As a consequence, country nutrition programs are often inadequate and underfunded, and commitment to nutrition by the global community is in need of strengthening.
RENEW will focus on developing and delivering dynamic, multimedia presentations to engage global partners and country-level policymakers and leaders; and showcasing data, new interventions, and the benefits of preventing malnutrition. The presentations will use advanced multimedia technologies and the groundbreaking Trendalyzer (bubble graph) software developed by Hans Rosling and his team at the Gapminder Foundation.
The tool will be used by nutrition advocates in implementing the roadmap to Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN), a global framework for action that is now endorsed by more than 100 bilateral and multilateral donors, foundations, nonprofit organizations, and research institutions. It will also support the call for focusing nutrition interventions in the first 1,000 days from pregnancy to the first two years of the baby's life, as a unique window of opportunity to have a significant impact on death and disability.