Poverty, food insecurity, and poor nutrition and health are among the most pernicious problems eroding people’s quality of life and limiting their economic productivity. These are the problems that IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND) aims to understand and overcome.

IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division (PHND) and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) have conducted research since 2003 on the critical links between nutrition, health, and agriculture. This evaluation considers the impact of the work carried out through 2016, looking at the research strategy, engagement, capacity building, and impact on programs and policies and global dialogue. Findings suggest that the Diet Quality and Health of the Poor program has been successful in developing and sharing valuable research, knowledge, and data, and has brought new issues and approaches to partners and stakeholders. Through a range of projects, the program has effectively engaged with stakeholders, partners, and governments to support capacity enhancement and to help shape national interventions to improve nutrition.

The set of modules that comprise this Sourcebookare intended for use in pre-service and in-service training of health professionals. It is expected that this publication will also be of use to health policy-makers and program managers, either as a reference document or in conjunction with in-service training. This module is designed to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals on poverty and gender concerns in the field of nutrition. It is divided into six sections. Section 1 explores key factors that contribute to nutritional health, how nutritional status is measured, and key nutritional needs through the life cycle. Section 2 examines the links between poverty and gender and nutrition. Section 3 discusses why it is important for health professionals to address poverty and gender concerns in nutrition, from efficiency, equity and human rights perspectives. Section 4 discusses how health professionals can improve nutritional health and illustrates pro-poor and gender-responsive interventions to promote and improve nutritional outcomes. Section 5 provides notes for training facilitators and finally, section 6 is a collection of additional resources and references to support health professionals in their work in this field.

This extremely important book is devoted to exploring the links between poor nutrition and poverty. Combining clear and lively text with high-quality photos, Nutrition & Poverty presents an overview of the basic nutritional requirements for humans to function and goes on to thoroughly explore the many dimensions of the relationships between poverty, health, nutrition, and population. Important topics are covered, including how poor nutrition leads to poor education, how and why poverty and its resulting poor nutrition are prevalent in many developing countries and what is being done about it, how seasonal and political famine prevent people from getting the food they need, and much more. The book takes an intensive look at different countries and measures whether their inhabitants are meeting their nutritional needs and the reasons behind their success or lack of it, providing a fascinating geographical perspective on nutrition.

This volume deals with an ongoing debate relating to the definition and measurement of nutritional status. It focuses on the problems of measuring undernutrition and its links with poverty, both as a cause and an effect.