The Livestock for Health (L4H) project is a collaborative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Marsabit County Government, the National Government of Kenya, the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) and Washington State University (WSU). The project was made possible through the support provided by the Office of Technical and Program Quality, Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to determine the cost-effectiveness of livestock feeding interventions and nutritional counselling in reducing the risk of malnutrition among children and women in pastoral communities during the critical dry periods. The project was designed as a cluster randomized control trial with two intervention arms and one control group. Households in Intervention Arm 1 receive livestock feeds sufficient to maintain two tropical livestock units (TLUs) for 90 days during critical dry periods or drought and 7–14 days into the rain season. Households in Intervention Arm 2 receive similar livestock feeds and regular nutritional counselling carried out by trained community healthcare workers. Households in Arm 3 are the control group and do not receive any of the two interventions during the study period. The results from this baseline survey will be essential for comparing with other data which will be collected during the routine household data collection visits (six week follow-up and quarterly household visits) for monitoring trends in household milk yield, milk consumption (amount and frequency) and nutritional status across the intervention and control arms of the study over the study period. At baseline, both the intervention and control arms were comparable in household demographics, socio-economic characteristics, household livestock ownership, milk production and consumption, and maternal and child nutritional status and health. Additionally, the high prevalence of malnutrition in this study population and the data on health and intervention costs which will be collected in this study will allow for a cost-effectiveness analysis to determine if livestock feeding interventions and nutritional counselling are cost-effective in reducing the risk of malnutrition among children and women in pastoral communities during the critical dry periods.

The Millennium Development Goals adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015--income poverty hunger disease exclusion lack of infrastructure and shelter-while promoting gender equality education health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure just and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Pro.

The Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. This report lays out the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger in seven major categories: political action; national policy reforms; increased agricultural productivity for food insecure farmers; improved nutrition for the chronically hungry; productive safety nets for the acutely hungry; improved rural incomes and markets; and restoration and conservation of natural resources essential for food security. The task force strongly endorses the Secretary General's call for a 21st Century African Green Revolution. These bold yet practical approaches will enable countries in every region of the world to halve world hunger by 2015.

In recent years, the world has seen unprecedented attention and political commitment to addressing malnutrition. Milestones such as the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, the Lancet Maternal and Child Nutrition Series, and the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) have marked the rapid rise of nutrition on the global policy and research agenda. These developments reverse years of relative neglect for nutrition. Undernutrition is a global challenge with huge social and economic costs. It kills millions of young children annually, stunts growth, erodes child development, reduces the amount of schooling children attain, and increases the likelihood of their being poor as adults, if they survive. Stunting persists through a lifetime and beyond—underweight mothers are more likely to give birth to underweight children, perpetuating undernutrition across generations. Undernutrition reduces global gross domestic product by US$1.4–$2.1 trillion a year—the size of the total economy of Africa south of the Sahara.

With one more year before the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the 2014 Global Hunger Index report offers a multifaceted overview of global hunger that brings new insights to the global debate on where to focus efforts in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. The state of hunger in developing countries as a group has improved since 1990, falling by 39 percent, according to the 2014 GHI. Despite progress made, the level of hunger in the world is still “serious,” with 805 million people continuing to go hungry, according to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The global average obscures dramatic differences across regions and countries. Regionally, the highest GHI scores—and therefore the highest hunger levels—are in Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia, which have also experienced the greatest absolute improvements since 2005. South Asia saw the steepest absolute decline in GHI scores since 1990. Progress in addressing child underweight was the main factor behind the improved GHI score for the region since 1990.