Monthly Archives: February 2023

Hidden hunger is a form of malnutrition that results from an inadequate intake of vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients, even though the overall calorie intake is adequate. It is an invisible form of malnutrition that is often overlooked and can have long-term health effects if not addressed. It can also lead to stunted physical and cognitive development in children and can significantly impact global health and development.

Hidden hunger is a global problem, with more than two billion people suffering from it today. It is particularly prevalent in developing countries, where poverty and lack of access to nutritious foods are significant factors. Poor diets, insufficient breastfeeding, and lack of access to health services are also contributing factors.

Although micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, iodine, folate, and zinc are needed by the body in minimal amounts, the deficiency of all such micronutrients can result in covert or hidden symptoms that are difficult to detect clinically, such as:

1. Fatigue
2. Inability to fight infections
3. Impaired cognitive functions
4. Impact on the long-term health of the person

The world can prevent hidden hunger by investing in nutrition-specific interventions, such as providing access to micronutrient-rich foods and nutrition education. Also, Governments should improve the availability and affordability of nutritious foods, like fruits and vegetables, and ensure the safety and quality of food supplies. Ensuring good agriculture and food production practices, including using high-yielding varieties and implementing sustainable agricultural practices, can also help reduce hidden hunger. Finally, improving access to health services and strengthening health systems can help to reduce hidden hunger.

The above includes providing access to health care, immunization, and health education, as well as improving the availability of micronutrient supplements, such as iron, iodine, and vitamin A.

The following steps can be taken to overcome hidden hunger:

1. Governments must prioritize nutrition in their development plans and create policies that ensure the availability and affordability of nutritious foods. The same would include investing in nutrition-specific interventions, i.e., providing access to micronutrient-rich foods and nutrition education.

2. Increasing food production and improving agricultural practices can help to reduce hidden hunger. The same includes the use of high-yielding varieties and the implementation of sustainable farming practices.

3. Access to health services should be improved, and health systems should be strengthened. The above includes providing access to health care, immunization, and health education and improving the availability of micronutrient supplements.

4. Governments should create policies and programs that reduce poverty and inequality since they significantly contribute to hidden hunger. It further includes providing access to social protection programs, like cash transfers and public works programs, that can help to reduce food insecurity.

5. Extensive research should be conducted to understand hidden hunger causes and develop effective interventions to address the problem. It means researching the impact of various interventions, like nutrition, agriculture, and health interventions.

After understanding the reasons and steps regarding hidden hunger, it is essential to find strategies to address micronutrient malnutrition and curb the “Hidden Hunger.” Such strategies are:

· Diversification of diets

· Fortifying Commercial foods

· Supplementation

· Biofortification

Diversification of Diets

An increase in Dietary Diversity is one of the most effective ways to prevent hidden hunger (Thompson and Amoroso 2010) sustainably. Dietary diversification is associated with child nutritional outcomes, even when controlling for socioeconomic factors (Arimond and Ruel 2004). It ensures a healthy diet that ­contains a balanced and adequate combination of macronutrients for the growth and development of a person. Various cereals, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods provide sufficient nutrition for most people.

Some practical ways to promote dietary diversity involve food-based strategies, such as home gardening and educating people on better infant and young child feeding practices, food preparation, and storage/preservation methods to prevent nutrient loss.

Fortifying Commercial Foods

Food fortification is the addition of micronutrients to processed foods. Commercial food fortification adds micronutrients to staple foods or condiments during processing, thus, helping consumers consume appropriate levels of micronutrients. One of the scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective public health strategies, fortification is for iodized salt: 71% of the world’s population has access to iodized salt, and the number of iodine-deficient countries has decreased from 54 to 32 since 2003 (Andersson, Karumbunathan, and Zimmermann 2012).

There are several shortcomings while adopting “fortifying”. Some of these are:

· Resistance towards fortified foods

· The cooking properties or the flavours of fortified increase the levels of resistance among customers, thus, making it difficult to determine appropriate nutrient levels.

· The compounds used to fortify foods are unstable and might get lost during processing or storage

· Bioavailability: the degree to which a substance can be absorbed, which may be limited, thus, reducing the nutrient value

Supplementation

Supplementation is a technical approach to deliver nutrients directly to the desired population using syrup or pills.

The advantage of this technique is the capability of supplying an optimal amount of a specific nutrient in a highly absorbable form. Also, it is the fastest way to control deficiency in individuals or population groups that have been identified as deficient.

Supplementation programs are generally used as a short-term measure to replace long-term, sustainable food-based measures.

Between 1999 and 2005, the coverage of Vitamin A supplements increased more than fourfold; in 2012, estimated coverage rates were nearly 70% globally (UNICEF 2014b). According to UNICEF, at least 70% of young children ages 6 to 59 months need to receive vitamin A supplements every six months to achieve the desired reductions in child mortality.

Biofortification

Biofortification is a relatively new intervention involving breeding food crops using conventional or transgenic methods, thus, increasing their micronutrient content. Interestingly, only conventionally bred biofortified crops are released and delivered to farmers. While biofortified crops are unavailable in developing countries, the process will grow significantly in the next five years (Saltzman et al., 2013).

Biofortified foods provide a steady and safe source of micronutrients for people not reached by other interventions. Since biofortified staple foods cannot deliver as high a level or a wide range of minerals and vitamins, they are not the best response to clinical deficiencies. However, they help reduce the micronutrient intake gap and increase the daily intake of vitamins and minerals throughout a person’s life (Bouis et al. 2011).

Hidden hunger is a global problem that significantly impacts global health and development. To reduce its prevalence, governments should prioritize nutrition in their development plans and create policies ensuring nutritious foods’ availability and affordability. In addition, access to health services should be improved, poverty and inequality should be reduced, and more research should be conducted to understand the causes of hidden hunger and to develop effective interventions to address the problem.

The Global Recession has tremendously impacted sustainable development worldwide, particularly affecting developing countries. In 2008 the world was hit by the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929, not only affecting the US and Europe but also bringing about a wave of economic Recession to the rest of the world, causing a sharp decline in economic growth in many countries, reducing spending capacities, eroding job security and leading to a decrease in the income levels of households. It further considerably impacted sustainable development, which can be seen in health, education, infrastructure, and environmental protection.

In terms of health, the Global Recession has negatively affected access to healthcare in many countries. Nations had to cut back on spending and reduce public services to address budgetary deficits; health services have been badly affected. Health spending has been reduced, resulting in fewer resources available to address public health issues, such as providing essential health services, medicines, and vaccinations. It also caused a decrease in the quality of health services and has harmed the health of individuals and communities.

The Global Recession has also negatively impacted the education sector. Governments were forced to reduce their spending on education, resulting in reduced resources and funding for educational institutions. It further led to a decrease in the quality of education, particularly in developing countries, with fewer resources available to provide quality education to children. Furthermore, it had a detrimental effect on developing skills and knowledge essential for sustainable development.

The Global Recession has also significantly impacted infrastructure worldwide, particularly in developing countries. The Governments reduced their spending, and infrastructure projects have been put on hold or scrapped in many cases. The reduced focus decreased the quality of infrastructure and the availability of services, such as transport, power, water and sanitation. It also directly impacted sustainable development, as access to reliable infrastructure is essential for economic growth and development.

Finally, the Global Recession has had a significant impact on environmental protection. Since nations focused on basic amenities, environmental protection was the first sector affected. Further, it decreased the resources available to protect and preserve the environment, decreasing the quality of the environment and increasing pollution, thus directly impacting sustainable development, as a healthy environment is essential for economic growth and development.

Overall, the Global Recession has considerably impacted sustainable development, negatively affecting health, education, infrastructure, and environmental protection. Governments and international organizations must work together to ensure that countries can address the impacts of the Global Recession and ensure that sustainable development is not compromised.

It is evident that the Recession impacts every spectrum of sustainable development; a very pertinent question that comes into mind is How will companies managed with a focus on sustainable development be impacted by the Recession? However, a few studies address the question and all those addresses the same, explaining that sustainability-focused companies outperform during the Recession.

According to a study published by BlackRock, an investment company, along with investment research firm Morningstar, companies with solid profiles on material sustainability issues have the potential to outperform those with relatively weak profiles. In particular, companies managed with a focus on sustainability should be better positioned versus their less sustainable peers to weather adverse conditions. The study also reported that during the first quarter of 2020, when the economy started taking a downturn, 51 out of 57 companies they were following “outperformed their [non-sustainable]… market counterparts.” Thus, the report concluded that sustainability-focused companies do better in economic downturns.

Some of the reasons that the study conducted by the two agencies for outperforming are:

• Job satisfaction tends to be higher in sustainable companies, resulting in enhanced customer relations
• Organizations practising sustainability possess a robust corporate culture
• Investors are more willing to invest in companies that practice sustainability, helping them overcome financial hurdles
• Companies practising sustainability tend to have more effective boards, making them better equipped to deal with market turbulence and economic uncertainty
• Companies practising sustainability overall have greater resilience during downturns

Some of these factors talk about adopting sustainability at every level of the organization, thus ensuring that economic slowdown does not impact their optimization levels.

A Sustainable Edge

There are five ways the companies can provide an edge to their sustainable strategies. These are:

1. Purpose:

It is essential to help frame decision-making and keep the employees engaged.

Crisis impacts decision-making in challenging to determine how to act, what initiatives to implement, and how best to support the efforts. Purpose-driven sustainability strategy encourages companies to distil their purpose and reason for existing. Purpose-driven employees know how the company can best contribute to society, particularly in times of crisis, thus providing them with an edge.

Research conducted by The Conference Board explains an increase in the number of companies publishing purpose statements, i.e., in 2019, 77 companies in the S&P 500 had published a purpose statement, more than two and a half times as many as in 2015.

Of the companies mentioned, about one-fourth claim to be purpose-driven. Purpose enables these companies to perform well during volatility and ensures employee engagement and decision-making during uncertainty.

2. Materiality: to zero in on what matters most

The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues that companies deal with are overwhelming and aim to identify the problems that are material to the company or where the company can have the most significant impact, then focus resources and strategy around those issues. Since a company observes several ESG issues like climate change, water scarcity, child labour, sexual harassment, cybersecurity, and many more, a materiality analysis distils the list of ESG issues into a handful of genuine material issues.

Therefore, a focused list of ESG priorities can facilitate decision-making during a crisis. The materiality analysis process provides external input, a critical perspective helping companies uncover issues that an organizational process may overlook. The process can further lead to an appreciation for external stakeholders and help companies better understand their role in society and how best to support their communities.

3. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

To provide context on the company’s role in society, the United Nations Member States adopted the SDGs in 2015 as a universal call to action by governments and various stakeholders to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

The SDGs provide a framework for addressing some of the most significant issues facing society, and many companies have aligned their sustainability targets and goals with those of the SDGs.

However, if the company chooses not to use the SDGs as the framework for its sustainable targets, many SDGs go beyond providing sustainable goals and adopting sustainable strategies. As part of the strategic planning process, they can encourage long-term, creative, and big-picture thinking that spurs innovation. Similar to purpose, aligning corporate targets with societal challenges can also give companies and their employees a new appreciation for their societal role.

4. Reporting and Engagement:

To provide guidance and transparency, a sustainability strategy encourages regular Engagement with stakeholders. A vital component of this Engagement is reporting on a company’s non-financial impacts, risks, and opportunities, along with the progress a company is making toward achieving its sustainability targets. Reporting, i.e., tracking, collecting, and analyzing the non-financial data, sheds light on a company’s most significant impact areas. Thus, the information received can help expedite allocation of resources and efforts during a crisis.

Transparency through regular reporting manages stakeholder expectations by providing clear guidance on a company’s priorities, strategies, and long-term goals, enabling investors, employees, and other stakeholders to anticipate a company’s actions and prevent surprises during the crisis.

5. Collaboration:

To catalyze innovation, companies integrate sustainability into the business by breaking down silos and encouraging a culture of collaboration both internally and externally. A high level of collaboration is necessary to tackle issues beyond the company’s four walls.

A sustainability strategy is a collaboration of innovation and risk reduction wherein such collaboration can be a catalyst for innovating solutions to society’s challenges. Collaboration can yield heightened levels of inward and outward awareness, i.e., employees know whom to go to for information and resources, regardless of their function, department, or region, and they are empowered to tap into resources outside of the organization. This level of awareness and connectivity is crucial in a crisis and can speed up the deployment of resources and innovation.

The global financial crisis and economic slowdown spur much-needed structural reform, which could result in environmental gains and poverty reduction. The situation provides an opportunity to reform or remove policies that may be expensive, socially inefficient, and environmentally harmful.