2.2.2: Prevalence of malnutrition among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting or overweight)

==Definition ==

This indicator is described to be the prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight). Each type offers it's own set of metadata.

Child growth is an internationally accepted outcome area reflecting child nutritional status. Child overweight refers to a child who is too heavy for his or her height. This form of malnutrition results from expending too few calories for the amount of food consumed and increases the risk of non-communicable diseases later in life. Child wasting refers to a child who is too thin for his or her height and is the result of recent rapid weight loss or the failure to gain weight. A child who is moderately or severely wasted has an increased risk of death

Rice Impacts
Rice, being the daily staple of up to 3.5 billion people and accounting for 19% of global dietary energy, has seen its global consumption increase along with the population growth in Asia and Africa. Most of the consumption is happening in Southeast Asia where the average annual consumption per capita was about 197 kg and provided 49% of the calories and 39% of the protein in the diet Consumption is still projected to increase in the medium term from 450 million tons in 2011 to 650 million tons by 2050.

Matching it to data from the UNICEF/WHO/World Bank malnutrition estimates, most wasting is happening in predominantly rice consuming areas, with South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa making up 89% of the 49.5 million wasting children under 5 years old. As for overweight children, the same regions take up 56% of the 40.1 million overweight children under 5 years old, with the other half dominated by East Asia and the Americas. However, the number of overweight children increased across all income groups from 2000 to 2018, which correlates to an increase in rice consumption.

White rice serves as the primary source of nutrition in most of the developing world, and has potential as the primary vehicle to better nutrition for the average consumer. Apart from improving the nutritional offerings (zinc, iron, vitamin A, etc) in white rice, increasing the income of subsistence rice farmers to allow them to diversify what they eat with more expensive meats and vegetables is also a way to fight malnutrition and overweightness. A high-carb rice diet being fed to children without the necessary vegetables for a balanced diet may be a leading cause of obesity in developing countries.

Overlaps with the SRP Instruments
Though SRP lacks a nutrition requirement, its members such as the WFP are equipped alongside corporate partners (e.g. DSM of WBCSD, a SRL member) and international partners (direct FAO or indirect GAIN) to offer insights into this metric. Otherwise, the SRP also records income levels of farmers in projects and tackles problem indicators based on the PIs. SRP projects aim to improving farmer income to allow them to move beyond subsistence farming and purchase more nutritious food.