Jamie-Cooper Hohn from CIFF, a major Children's Foundation, just spoke, followed by President of Malawi Joyce Banda. “New findings in the Lancet have shown the stunning fact that undernutrition is the underlying cause of 45% of child deaths…. The world will never achieve MDGs 4 and 5 without increased investment against undernutrition”. She continued the theme of economic growth begun by PM David Cameron, saying how countries such as Nigeria and India are losing around 10% of economic growth p.a. “those countries cannot achieve sustained growth with the continued levels of undernutrition.”
New research from Save The Children has shown that a well nourished child is 13% more likely to do well in school. And the work of Lawrence Haddad at IDS shows that a small 3% growth in height for age will mean that that family is one third less likely to live in poverty.
The audience were clearly waiting for a major financial pledge to be announced by Ms Cooper-Hohn and there was some disappointment in the room when she ended without one. Are CIFF keeping us on tenterhooks? We will find out later in the day.