Development Works Number 6, December 2012 | Page 5

&
Realities

Myths
Myth: Not much can

be done to improve child
nutrition without money—
a lot of it.

Reality: For about $8, a child can be provided with a pack-

age of nutrients and medications designed to help prevent irreversible damage from malnutrition. Thus, the United States helps large
numbers of children even with our current modest nutrition assistance
budget (about $95 million a year).
Nutrition during the 1,000-day window is in the category of “things
it’s too expensive not to do,” since it can cost a country as much as
11 percent of its economic output in lost productivity, not to mention
significant extra healthcare costs.
Realizing how critical early nutrition is, national governments are the
main investors in SUN countries’ nutrition initiatives. Ghana, Nepal,
and Tanzania, for example, have tripled national resources dedicated to
nutrition.

Myth: There’s nothing

we can do to prevent famine.
It’s been happening for
thousands of years.

Reality: Drought, hurricanes, and the like are natural phenom-

ena. People cannot prevent or control them. Famine in the 21st century is a human failure. It happens simply because people who need
help do not receive it in time.

In many instances, prevention is far less costly than post-famine
recovery efforts. In Ethiopia, for example, studies showed that
restocking sheep and goats cost at least 6 times more than providing
food for animals so they could survive drought. Restocking cattle cost
14 times more than supplementary feeding.

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