What challenges remain?
Globally, child stunting has seen steady and significant decline over the past few decades, and several Exemplar countries prove that rapid reduction is possible. Nevertheless, stunting prevalence remains high in low-resource settings across the world where stunting-related programming has been absent or ineffective.
In settings where resources are limited, uneven progress to date reflects three key issues:
- Implementation challenges: The multifactorial nature of stunting makes it a useful indicator for overall health and well-being, but it also makes it challenging to address. Policy makers often struggle to identify which drivers of stunting play a key role in their geographic areas. Delivering the required multisectoral response to the children who need it most is both politically and practically challenging.
- Gaps in understanding: Important aspects of stunting are still not well understood. These gaps in our knowledge remain despite ongoing research on the subject.
- Additional contextual challenges: Several new and increasingly pressing challenges, including COVID-19 and the double burden of stunting and obesity, threaten to halt progress toward reducing child stunting. To sustain progress over time, the field must continue to invest in identifying and scaling up appropriate solutions for emerging challenges.