2.2.1: Prevalence of stunting among children under 5 years of age

Definition
The indicator is the prevalence of stunting (height-for-age <-2 standard deviation from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age.

Child stunting refers to the condition where a child is too short for his or her age and is the result of chronic or recurrent malnutrition. Stunting is a contributing risk factor to child mortality and is also a marker of inequalities in human development. Stunted children fail to reach their physical and cognitive potential. Child stunting is one of the World Health Assembly nutrition target indicators.

Survey estimates are based on standardized methodology using the WHO Child Growth Standards. Global and regional estimates are based on methodology outlined in UNICEF-WHO-The World Bank: Joint child malnutrition estimates - Levels and trends.

For the majority of countries, nationally representative household surveys constitute the data source. For a limited number of countries data from surveillance systems is used if sufficient population coverage is documented (about 80%). The child’s height and weight measurements have to be collected following recommended standard measuring techniques (WHO 2008).

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 stunting is happening in predominantly rice consuming areas, with South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa making up 88% of the 149 million stunted children under 5 years old. 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 stunting. Upper-middle income countries were able to reduce the prevalence of stunting by the most dramatic amount (65.7%) of all income groups, followed by lower-middle income with a 25.3% reduction.

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.