Q&A: Which countries are on track to meet global nutrition targets by 2030?

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity

What are the 2030 global nutrition targets?

Poor nutrition status is a leading contributor to death and disability in pregnancy, in early childhood, and in infancy.

In recognition of this, the global nutrition targets were a call to action by the World Health Assembly in 2012 to prioritize change in six areas, specifically, reducing low birth weight; boosting breastfeeding in infants under 6 months; reducing stunting, wasting, and overweight in children; and reducing anemia in females of reproductive age.

What progress is being made to achieve the global nutrition targets?

In 2021, a few countries had already met some of the targets, five for exclusive breastfeeding, four for stunting, 96 for child wasting, and three for child overweight. None met the targets for low birth weight or anemia in females of reproductive age.

The prevalence of both stunting and wasting has decreased in most low- and middle-income countries since 2012, and exclusive breastfeeding has increased in most countries globally. The global prevalence of low birth weight has decreased only slightly since 2012, with the largest decreases concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The global anemia prevalence in females of reproductive age increased slightly since 2012.

Where do we see change taking place?

In this map, the countries in green are those that are improving multiple global nutrition indicators at a rate that is greater than we would expect on the basis of their Socio-demographic Index, or really, their level of development and education. And the darker the green, the more indicators they are improving relative to the expectation.

How does Socio-Demographic Index ranking impact nutrition, and will the targets be achieved?

Low- and middle-income countries tend to have the greatest burden of disease attributable to suboptimal nutrition. We found that Socio-demographic Index is a strong correlate of progress for the global nutrition target indicators, apart from exclusive breastfeeding. We modeled the prevalence of each indicator on the basis of Socio-demographic Index to identify countries whose progress exceeded expectations.

We projected that no country will meet the low birth weight target of 30% reduction in prevalence.
Nepal and Bangladesh will be the closest, with decreases of around 22%. Seven countries are projected to meet the breastfeeding target of 70% prevalence in 2030. Twenty-eight countries, mostly low- and middle-income countries, will attain the target of reducing the number of children with stunting by 50%.

Where are the 2030 global nutrition targets being met?

By 2030, most of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia are not expected to meet any global nutrition targets. However, we can see that most countries are expected to achieve the child wasting target.

And I’d like to point out that the five countries in red on this map, which are Sri Lanka, Solomon Islands, Burundi, Malawi, and Zambia, are forecasted to meet the breastfeeding target. And Peru and Rwanda, in orange, are forecasted to meet both the breastfeeding and wasting targets.

We are concerned that no country is projected to meet the child overweight target of no increase in prevalence, nor is any country projected to meet the anemia reduction target of 50% in females of reproductive age.