Interventions to improve nutrition, especially for children and pregnant women, can be critical for health, physical growth and cognitive development, enabling better lives and futures.
, using a case study in South Africa, helps explain the different impacts of nutrition interventions early in a child’s life. For children living in adversity, the potential benefits over their life course are not fully realised. For children who are better off, the benefits magnify over time., with 10% of the population owning 80% of the country’s wealth. It is critical to avoid making that inequality even worse.
Our case study highlights the importance of context, throughout childhood and into adulthood, on long-term outcomes. It can guide the allocation of resources to get the best returns on investments in nutrition – especially for the poorest children.Our case study looks at the interactions between early nutrition, school quality and job opportunities. Nutrition protects a child’s development potential. School quality influences whether that child will realise their potential.
In other words, the “return on investment” to support maternal and early childhood nutrition is high: US$18 in productivity for every US$1 invested. Nearly 2,000 lives would be saved. Stunting among two-year-olds would drop by more than three percentage points. And the cohort would enjoy 53,000 more years of schooling.
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