Undernutrition continues to afflict 180 million children worldwide and is responsible for in excess of 3.5 million maternal and child deaths each year. Until recently malnutrition was a neglected issue. However, it has recently begun to rise up the political agenda.

Events such as the London Hunger Summit that was hosted by David Cameron, and that IDS provided background research for, signify a welcome political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition.

The reality is that the world can put an end to this nutrition crisis by 2020 but it needs to make sustained funding for nutrition programmes a priority in order to provide the $10 billion a year required.

IDS has been working with partners worldwide such as the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Public Health Foundation of India, the University of Nairobi, Save the Children, Action Against Hunger, Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) to ensure that the momentum and political will to put an end to undernutrition is sustained.

IDS has particular experience and expertise in the area of nutrition and our work with partners aims to inform and shape current debate. IDS research and research uptake work is contributing to the effort to accelerate malnutrition reduction by showing how to define, support and evaluate enabling environments for sustained nutrition progress.

Accelerating Undernutrition Reduction

Our work is focused on three key themes which have been repeatedly highlighted as critical for accelerating undernutrition reduction:

1. How do we build political commitment on nutrition? Through innovative research such as the Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index we are investigating how to move nutrition higher up the agenda in national and international contexts, and sustain this commitment over time. We are also exploring how civil society and social movements contribute to building political commitment on nutrition and how wider political and policy environments constrain or enable progress.
2. How do we mobilise resources for nutrition? We need to rapidly expand the financing and human resources available for tackling undernutrition. Our work focuses on how to mobilise these resources in global commitments and national budgeting, including leveraging the private sector and natural resource revenues. 
3. How do we ensure research uptake for nutrition? To ensure that nutrition and development research has an impact on policy, we are identifying ways to increase demand for evidence and to build the capacity use it. Our work on nutrition spans the IDS research teams and IDS Knowledge Services. Nutrition is a core theme for the Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction Team.