A/71/282 B. Nutrition-sensitive groups 1. Women 10. Women are more vulnerable to malnutrition than men because of different physiological requirements. Although women require 35 per cent less dietary energy per day than men, they need at least the same amount of nutrients. Consequently, a woman’s ideal diet contains significantly more nutrients than those of a male counterpart. 11. Women who are lactating and pregnant require an even more nutrient -rich diet. To ensure the health of the fetus, a diet consisting of at least 20 per cent protein and higher levels of iron, folate and calcium is essential. Malnourished mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight babies, who in turn are 20 per cent more likely to die before the age of 5. 7 Diets that consist of less than 6 per cent protein in utero have been linked with many deficits, including decreased brain weight, obesity and impaired brain communication. 8 2. Children 12. The first 1,000 days of a child’s life determines a person’s physical and intellectual development. Children receiving appropriate nutrition during this window are reportedly 10 times more likely to overcome life -threatening childhood diseases and likely to complete 4.6 additional schooling levels and to raise health ier children themselves. 9 The stages of a child’s development are cumulative, and inadequate nutrition at an early stage can have lasting negative impacts, setting the child on a higher trajectory of risk of malnutrition throughout life. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its general comment No. 15, noted that understanding the life course was essential in order to appreciate how health problems in childhood affected public health in general. 13. WHO has concluded that malnutrition is the underlyi ng contributing factor in about 45 per cent of all child deaths. 10 While the world has made progress in addressing undernutrition, for example by reducing stunting by more than a third since 1990, this progress is not fast enough. In 2014, there were 159 mi llion stunted and 50 million wasted children in the world, 11 and by 2030, stunting is expected to affect 129 million children. 12 14. At the same time, there were 41 million overweight children under the age of 5. 11 If this trend continues, 70 million infants and young children will be overweight or __________________ 7 8 9 10 11 12 16-13441 WFP, “Women and hunger: 10 facts”. Available from www.wfp.org/our-work/preventing-hunger/ focus-women/women-hunger-facts. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2000: Food Insecurity, When People Live with Hunger and Fear Starvation (Rome, 2000), p. 11. John Hoddinott and others, “Adult consequences of growth failure in early childhood”, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 98, No. 5 (November 2013). See also 1,000 Days, “Why 1,000 days”, available from http://thousanddays.org/the-issue/why-1000-days. WHO, “Children: reducing mortality”, fact sheet, January 2016. Available from www.who.int/ mediacentre/factsheets/fs178/en. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WHO and World Bank Group, “Levels and trends in child malnutrition: key findings of the 2015 edition”, September 2015. Save the Children, Unequal Portions: Ending Malnutrition for Every Last Child (London, 2016), p. v. 5/24