Despite recent progress, malnutrition remains a severe problem in Ethiopia, especially among young children. Many of them suffer lifelong consequences in terms of higher risk of mortality and future illness, impaired cognitive ability (including lower IQ) and educational attainment, and overall productivity loss. This report provides the findings from an in-depth data-based analysis of malnutrition in Ethiopia and its causes. It assesses various aspects of current nutrition programming in the country, noting the importance of Ethiopia's first National Nutrition Strategy and National Nutrition Program established in 2008. The report also examines key details including costs and benefits of a range of interventions against malnutrition in the country, including some that are not yet being implemented but could potentially be introduced. The analysis draws on data from household surveys, detailed program data and data from various sources on costs, impacts and potential coverage, among others. The report finds that contrary to what is commonly believed and traditionally used to guide policymaking, a substantial amount of the malnutrition in Ethiopia is due to factors other than food insecurity, pointing to the need for a multi-sectoral approach. Nutrition interventions in general are found to have high benefit-to-cost ratios - sometimes in the double or triple digits - with these ratios being especially high for micronutrient interventions, insecticide-treated bednets, deworming and community-based interventions. Among others, the report recommends the introduction of deworming for pregnant women in Ethiopia - which has the highest benefit-to-cost ratio among the interventions analyzed - and scaling up community-based interventions. These include the Community-Based Nutrition program which shows impressive results in Ethiopia after just over two years of implementation. The report also recommends various ways of improving the effectiveness of nutrition programming including by improving program targeting, enhancing coordination and linkages among programs, and establishing an effective nutrition information and surveillance system.

Despite recent progress, malnutrition remains a severe problem in Ethiopia. This report provides the findings from an in-depth data-based analysis of malnutrition in Ethiopia and its causes.

'Young Lives' is an international longitudinal study of childhood poverty, taking place in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. It aims to improve understanding of the causes and consequences of childhood poverty in the developing world.

Ethiopia has witnessed significant reductions in child mortality, undernutrition, and communicable diseases, but more substantial and faster progress is still needed. The rise in obesity and in noncommunicable diseases, particularly in urban areas, is alarming and requires urgent policy and programmatic attention. Unhealthy diets drive both undernutrition and obesity and are the underlying cause of significant proportion of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Maintaining the relatively high breastfeeding practices and increasing the diversity of diets will be critical to improving nutrition in Ethiopia. Implementation of effective nutrition messaging that shapes consumer behavior to adopt healthy dietary patterns, while bridging gaps in both the reach and the quality of such messaging is warranted. The health extension program, which is the cornerstone of the transformation of the health sector, may need to be redesigned in a way that improves its reach and the quality of the services it provides and minimizes the risk of burnout of frontline health workers. Interventions focusing on making healthy diets available, affordable, and accessible are urgently needed.

The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.

Over the past decades child stunting in Ethiopia has persisted at alarming rates. While the country experienced several droughts during this period, it also received enormous amounts of food aid, leading some to question the effectiveness of food aid in reducing child malnutrition. Using nationally representative household surveys from 1995-96 and controlling for program placement, Yamano, Alderman, and Christiaensen find that children between 6 and 24 months experienced about 0.9 cm less growth over a six-month period in communities where half the crop area was damaged compared with those without crop damage. Food aid was also found to have a substantial effect on the growth of children in this age group. And on average, the total amount of food aid appeared to be sufficient to protect children against plot damage, an encouraging sign that food aid can act as an effective insurance mechanism, though its cost-effectiveness needs further investigation.