Realising the potential human development returns to investing in early and maternal nutrition: The importance of identifying and addressing constraints over the life course

Chris Desmond, Agnes Erzse, Kathryn Watt, Kate Ward, Marie-Louise Newell, Karen Hofman and on behalf of the INPreP Group

PLOS Global Public Health, 2021, vol. 1, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: The benefits of interventions which improve early nutrition are well recognised. These benefits, however, only accrue to the extent that later life circumstances allow. Consequently, in adverse contexts many of the benefits will never be realised, particularly for the most vulnerable, exacerbating inequality. Returns to investment in early nutrition could be improved if we identified contextual factors constraining their realisation and interventions to weaken these. We estimate cost and impact of scaling 10 nutrition interventions for a cohort of South African children born in 2021. We estimate associated declines in malnutrition and mortality, and improvements in years of schooling and future earnings. To examine the role of context over the life-course we estimate benefits with and without additional improvements in school quality and employment opportunities by socio-economic quintile. Scale up reduces national stunting (height for age

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pgph00:0000021

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0000021

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