Progress in supporting partner countries to reduce the number of children stunted
Progress in supporting partner countries to reduce the number of children stunted:
- In 38 of the 42 countries where investment for nutrition has been prioritised, the proportion of children suffering from stunting has fallen by an average of 6.2 percentage points.
- In the original 40 priority countries, since 2014 an estimated 4.2 million children will have been averted from stunting by 2025.
Based almost entirely on data collected prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that there are 149.2 million stunted children in the world (22% of all children), most of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. This is a reduction from 195.5 million in 2000.
However, despite a continuous downward trend, it was already clear before the COVID-19 crisis that the world was not on track to meet the international World Health Assembly (WHA) 2025 target for stunting reduction.
In fact, a closer analysis of the situation at regional level highlights that in Africa, despite the overall reduction in prevalence of stunting, the number of stunted children has actually been progressively increasing, from 54.4 million in 2000 to 61.4 million in 2020. This apparent paradox can be explained by the relatively higher population growth currently taking place across the African continent.
The EU uses the the Stunting Reduction Calculation Tool (SRCT) methodology which sets the trend and projection of child stunting (both prevalence and numbers) in each country since 1990.