Stunted child - overweight mother pairs

"This paper explores the global prevalence of an emerging phenomenon: the coexistence of a stunted child and an overweight mother in the same household. It also tests whether this phenomenon is associated with a country's level of economic development and urbanization. Policy directions for public nutrition are highlighted. Data from 36 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) were used (23 in Africa, 8 in Latin America, and 5 in Asia). Stunting was defined as height-for-age 25 kg/m 2 . World Bank and United Nations figures were used for GNP per capita (our indicator of economic development) and for level of urbanization, respectively. Descriptive statistics were derived, and regression analysis was used to model the association between economic development, urbanization, and the prevalence of stunted children and overweight women (SCOWT). The prevalence of SCOWT is generally below 10 percent, except in four countries, of which three are in Latin America. Among our sample of countries, SCOWT is generally more prevalent in Latin America than in Africa, and is below 5 percent in all five Asian countries. Contrary to our expectations, SCOWT is not necessarily more prevalent in urban than rural areas. In fact, when economic development is controlled for, SCOWT is associated with urbanization only in Latin America. In Africa and Asia, SCOWT is associated with economic development, but not urbanization, which suggests that SCOWT may emerge only at levels of economic development and urbanization higher than currently seen in most of the Asian and African countries studied...." from Authors' Abstracthealth ,Nutritionally induced diseases ,Children Growth ,

Are determinants of rural and urban food security and nutritional status different?

Undernutrition of children 0-60 months old in Mozambique is much higher in rural than in urban areas. Food security is about the same, although substantial regional differences exist. Given these outcomes, we hypothesized that the determinants of food security and nutritional status in rural and urban areas of Mozambique would differ as well. Yet we find that the determinants of food insecurity and malnutrition, and the magnitudes of their effects, are very nearly the same. The difference in observed outcomes appears primarily due to differences in the levels of critical determinants rather than in the nature of the determinants themselves.Malnutrition. ,Nutritional status. ,Rural conditions Analysis. ,Urban poor Mozambique. ,Rural poor Mozambique. ,Food security. ,

Stunted child - overweight mother pairs

health ,Nutritionally induced diseases ,Children Growth ,

Achieving urban food and nutrition security in the developing world:

CONTENTS: Brief 1. Overview / James L. Garrett Brief 2. An urbanizing world / Martin Brockerhoff Brief 3. Rural-urban interdependence / Ceclia Tacoli Brief 4. Urban livelihoods and labor markets / Arjan de Haan Brief 5. Feeding the cities: food supply and distribution / Olivio Argenti Brief 6. The hidden significance of urban agriculture / Luc J.A. Mougeot Brief 7. Urbanization and the nutrition transition / Barry M. Popkin Brief 8. Urban women: balancing work and childcare / Patrice L. Engle Brief 9. Threats to urban health / Carolyn Stephens Brief 10. Programming for urban food and nutrition security / Timothy R. Frankenberger, James L. Garrett, and Jeanne Downen.Food supply, food security, Livelihoods, Urban programming,

The Effectiveness of Commercial Diplomacy; a survey among Dutch Embassies and Consulates

The global economic power shift towards the East has caused the governments of developed economies to support national businesses which are involved in the process of internationalizing and expanding across borders. Commercial diplomacy provides a means for governments to increase their international trade and to stimulate their national economies. Foreign posts play a crucial role in offering effective diplomatic support for international business. But what are the factors that can explain commercial diplomacy effectiveness at the foreign post level?\ud \ud This paper presents the results of a survey that was conducted among commercial diplomats stationed at foreign posts. It appears that the amount of experience that commercial diplomats acquired at these foreign posts, combined with their established business network form two of the most important factors which have a positive impact on the quality of commercial diplomacy. This extends further to include the importance of the client (business) preparedness in terms of knowledge and skills as well. Furthermore, the results indicate that the less favourable a cognitive institutional environment in a host country is, for instance in terms of information availability, then the more relevance commercial diplomacy will have. The results of this study promote the understanding of how commercial diplomacy works and show how the debate on the future of commercial diplomacy can be taken a step further. This study should also be seen as a starting point for an holistic framework of commercial diplomacy effectiveness\u

Some urban facts of life

This review of recent literature explores the challenges to urban food and nutrition security in the rapidly urbanizing developing world. The premise of the manuscript is that the causes of malnutrition and food insecurity in urban and rural areas are different due primarily to a number of phenomena that are unique to or exacerbated by urban living. These areas include (1) a greater dependence on cash income; (2) weaker informal safety nets; (3) greater labor force participation of women and its consequences for child care; (4) lifestyle changes, particularly diet and exercise patterns; (5) greater availability of public services, but questionable access by the poor; (6) greater exposure to environmental contamination; and (7) governance by a new, possibly nonexistent, set of property rights. The main focus is on identifying what is different about urban areas, so as to better frame the program and policy responses.Urbanization. ,employment ,Child care ,Malnutrition. ,Labor ,Food security. ,Nutrition ,Property rights ,

Lograr la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional urbana en el mundo en desarrollo:

La tendencia es inevitable: más y más personas del mundo en desarrollo viven en las ciudades. En el año 2020, el número de habitantes de los países en desarrollo aumentará de 4.900 millones a 6.800 millones. Un 90% de este incremento se producirá en las ciudades y los pueblos en rápido crecimiento. Por lo tanto, incluso en países con extensas zonas rurales, la pobreza, la inseguridad alimentaria y la desnutrición urbanas son problemas de hoy, no de mañana. Por el bien de los millones de personas con hambre y desnutrición que viven hoy en día en las ciudades y del de los millones de seres que pueden verse obligados a vivir en ellas mañana, los gobiernos, los organismos de desarrollo y las comunidades han de actuar ahora. Tienen que trabajar con energía, confianza y acierto para promover políticas, incluso las de fomento del desarrollo rural, para enfrentar al creciente fantasma de la pobreza, el hambre y la desnutrición urbanas y de ese modo lograr el objetivo de seguridad alimentaria y nutricional sostenible para todos delineado en la iniciativa de la visión 2020.Urbanization., Population growth., Food security Latin America., Malnutrition Latin America.,

Extending the symmetry of the massless Klein-Gordon equation under the general disformal transformation

The Klein-Gordon equation, one of the most fundamental equations in field theory, is known to be not invariant under conformal transformation. However, its massless limit exhibits symmetry under Bekenstein's disformal transformation, subject to some conditions on the disformal part of the metric variation. In this study, we explore the symmetry of the Klein-Gordon equation under the general disformal transformation encompassing that of Bekenstein and a hierarchy of `sub-generalisations' explored in the literature (within the context of inflationary cosmology and scalar-tensor theories). We find that the symmetry in the massless limit can be extended under this generalisation provided that the disformal factors takes a special form in relation to the conformal factor. Upon settling the effective extension of symmetry, we investigate the invertibility of the general disformal transformation to avoid propagating non-physical degrees of freedom upon changing the metric. We derive the inverse transformation and the accompanying restrictions that make this inverse possible.Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in International Journal of Modern Physics A, deleted some unimportant details, clarified that the `orthogonality condition' does not make the field overdetermined, rewritten parts for clarit

Double-Duty Actions: Seizing Program and Policy Opportunities to Address Malnutrition in all its Forms

Actions to address different forms of malnutrition are typically managed by separate communities, policies, programmes, governance structures, and funding streams. In contrast, double duty actions, which aim to simultaneously tackle both undernutrition and problems of overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases (DR-NCDs) have been proposed as a way to effectively address malnutrition in all its forms in a more holsitic way. This paper identifies ten double duty actions that have strong potential to reduce the risk of both undernutrition and obesity/DR-NCDs. It does so by : 1) summarizing evidence on common drivers of different forms of malnutrition; 2) documenting examples of unintended harm caused by some undernutrition-focused programmes on obesity/DR-NCDs; and 3) highlighting a few examples of first double duty actions undertaken to tackle multiple forms of malnutrition. We find that undernutrition and obesity/DR-NCDs are intrinsically linked through early life nutrition; dietary quality; food environments; and socioeconomic factors. There is some evidence that undernutrition-focused programs have raised risks of poor quality diets and obesity/DR-NCDs, especially in countries undergoing a rapid nutrition transition. The paper builds on this evidence to develop a framework to guide the design of double duty approaches and strategies, and defines the first steps needed to deliver them. With a clear package of double duty actions now identified, there is an urgent need to move forward with double duty actions to address malnutrition in all its forms

Urban challenges to food and nutrition security

This review of recent literature explores the urban face of food and nutrition security in a more comprehensive, integrated way than most previous efforts. The review is organized around a conceptual framework that identifies food insecurity, inadequate caring behaviors, and poor health as the primary causes of malnutrition. It discusses current knowledge in eight areas that require the special attention of policymakers, development practitioners, and program administrators who wish to improve urban food and nutrition security: the sources and cost of food; incomes and employment; urban agriculture; urban diets; child caregiving practices; childhood mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition; health and environment; and social assistance programs, or safety nets. The review also reports on the magnitude of rural-urban and intra-urban health differences in mortality, morbidity, and malnutrition. In conclusion, the review indicates which policy issues and knowledge gaps remain for future research to address.Urban health. ,Urban poor Services for. ,Food security. ,Malnutrition. ,Child care. ,