Publication: Obesity: Health and Economic Consequences of an Impending Global Challenge
Loading...
Published
2020
ISSN
Date
2019-09-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Obesity is a global ticking time-bomb with huge potential negative economic and health impacts, especially for the poor. As of 2016, an estimated 44 percent of adults (more than 2 billion) worldwide are overweight/obese, and over 70 percent of them live in low- or middle-income countries, dispelling the myth that obesity is a problem only in high-income countries. The global obesity epidemic presents a formidable challenge to human capital acquisition, national wealth accumulation, and the goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Given the renewed global focus on human capital, its links to the obesity epidemic, and the growing evidence base for double- and triple-duty actions, there is both an urgent need for action and a great opportunity for engagement that will require both a whole-of-government and a whole-of-development partner approach. Countries and global partners need to act urgently to address this ensuing epidemic with emphasis highlighting interventions that require corrective public action rather than one of individual responsibility.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Shekar, Meera; Popkin, Barry. Shekar, Meera; Popkin, Barry, editors. 2020. Obesity: Health and Economic Consequences of an Impending Global Challenge. Human Development Perspectives;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32383 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication India's Undernourished Children : A Call for Reform and Action(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth. Drawing on qualitative studies and quantitative evidence from large household surveys, this book explores the dimensions of child undernutrition in India and examines the effectiveness of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, India's main early child development intervention, in addressing it. Although levels of undernutrition in India declined modestly during the 1990s, the reductions lagged behind those achieved by other countries with similar economic growth. Nutritional inequalities across different states and socioeconomic and demographic groups remain large. Although the ICDS program appears to be well-designed and well-placed to address the multi-dimensional causes of malnutrition in India, several problems exist that prevent it from reaching its potential. The book concludes with a discussion of a number of concrete actions that can be taken to bridge the gap between the policy intentions of ICDS and its actual implementation.Publication Scaling Up Nutrition : What Will it Cost?(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010)Undernutrition imposes a staggering cost worldwide, both in human and economic terms. It is responsible for the deaths of more than 3.5 million children each year (more than one-third of all deaths among children under five) and the loss of billions of dollars in forgone productivity and avoidable health care spending. Individuals lose more than 10 percent of lifetime earnings, and many countries lose at least 2-3 percent of their gross domestic product to undernutrition. The current economic crisis and its potential impact on the poor make investing in child nutrition more urgent than ever to protect and strengthen human capital in the most vulnerable developing countries. This report offers suggestions on how to raise these resources. It is an investment we must make. It will yield high returns in the form of thriving children, healthier families, and more productive workers. This investment is essential to make progress on the nutrition and child mortality Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to protect critical human capital in developing economies. The human and financial costs of further neglect will be high. This call for greater investment in nutrition comes at a time when global efforts to strengthen health systems provide a unique opportunity to scale up integrated packages of health and nutrition interventions, with common delivery platforms, and lower costs. The report has benefited from the expertise of many international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research institutions. The cooperation of so many practitioners is evidence of a growing recognition of the need to invest in nutrition interventions, and a growing consensus about how to deliver effective programs.Publication The Double Burden of Malnutrition(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-11)The Double Burden of Malnutrition (DBM) is the coexistence of both under nutrition and over nutrition in the same population across the life course. 'Across the life course' refers to the phenomenon that under nutrition early in life contributes to an increased propensity for over nutrition in adulthood. The DBM affects all countries, rich and poor, and is a particular concern in countries with high stunting rates. The consequences of the DBM are enormous; early life under nutrition is an underlying cause associated with about a third of young child deaths. Among the survivors who become stunted during the first two years of life, their capacity to resist disease, to carry out physical work, to study and progress in school, are all impaired across the life course. Later in the life course, diet and nutrition, and especially obesity, are important underlying causes of many Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), including hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and ischemic heart disease. The causes of the DBM are related to a series of changes occurring in the world called the nutrition transition, the demographic transition, and the epidemiological transition of countries. The variables associated with the nutrition transition and obesity epidemic can be grouped into four cross-cutting themes, which include: (i) the health/biological environment; (ii) the economic/food environment; (iii) the physical/built environment; and (iv) the socio/cultural environment. The solutions for the DBM problems are reasonably well recognized in each of its parts: under nutrition and over nutrition. However, the solutions have not been combined into an overarching policy and program framework, which together with raising awareness about the serious future implications for the low-and middle income countries is the aim of this paper.Publication Mainstreaming Nutrition in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers : What Does It Take? A Review of the Early Experience(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-12)This paper reviews 40 full poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) with regard to whether these strategy papers (1) recognize under-nutrition as a development problem in the country, (2) whether they use nutrition information for poverty analysis, and (3) whether the PRSP includes specific nutrition activities (policies, strategies, and programs) to deal with the unique nutrition problems in each country. The review shows that three quarters of the PRSPs recognize that under-nutrition is a development problem that leads to loss of human capital and/or productivity. Also, many PRSPs, either explicitly or implicitly, include country nutrition profiles in their poverty analysis. Consequently, a majority of PRSPs include strategies and specific actions to mitigate the effects of malnutrition. However, there appears to be little prioritization or sequencing of proposed actions. More importantly, the strategies and actions included in PRSPs often do not reflect an appropriate response to the nature of the nutrition problem in the country. In a quarter of countries with macronutrient deficiencies and about 40% of countries with micronutrient deficiencies, the PRSPs fail to address these two problems. Moreover, tackling nutrition issues requires greater institutional capacity and budget allocations than currently seem to exist. Gross mismatches between the causes of malnutrition and responses to the nutrition problem inevitably lead to a lack of impact and a waste of resources, which will further contribute to the marginalization of nutrition in future PRSPs.Publication Diet Quality, Child Health, and Food Policies in Developing Countries(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-10)Although the importance of diet quality for improving child health is widely recognized, the roles of environmental factors and the absorption of nutrients for children's physical growth and morbidity have not been adequately integrated into a policy framework. Moreover, nutrient intakes gradually affect child health, so it is helpful to use alternative tools to evaluate short-term interventions versus long-term food policies. This article emphasizes the role of diet quality reflected in the intake of nutrients such as protein, calcium, and iron for children's physical growth. Vitamins A and C are important for reducing morbidity. Children's growth and morbidity affect their cognitive development, which is critical for the future supply of skilled labor and economic growth. Evidence on these issues from countries such as Bangladesh, India, Kenya, the Philippines, and Tanzania is summarized. The supply of nutritious foods is appraised from the viewpoint of improving diet quality. Finally, the roles of educational campaigns and indirect taxes on unhealthy processed foods consumed by the affluent in developing countries are discussed.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-21)This report provides an up-to-date overview of existing and emerging carbon pricing instruments around the world, including international, national, and subnational initiatives. It also investigates trends surrounding the development and implementation of carbon pricing instruments and some of the drivers seen over the past year. Specifically, this report covers carbon taxes, emissions trading systems (ETSs), and crediting mechanisms. Key topics covered in the 2024 report include uptake of ETSs and carbon taxes in low- and middle- income economies, sectoral coverage of ETSs and carbon taxes, and the use of crediting mechanisms as part of the policy mix.Publication Pastoralism Development in the Sahel(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-05-04)The World Bank’s Global Center on Conflict, Security, and Development, currently the Fragility, Conflict, and Violence Cross-Cutting Solutions Area (FCV CCSA), in 2014 commissioned this note to enhance understanding of the connection between pastoralism and the recent increase in instability and violence in the Sahel, as well as the conditions under which the development of the pastoralist economy can actually enhance regional stability. The note seeks to offer guidance to international, national, and local decision makers on the drivers of conflict and instability that are most related to pastoral communities, as well as possible measures to reduce violence and enhance stability in the Sahel.Publication Women, Business and the Law 2020(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-01-14)Women, Business and the Law 2020, the sixth edition in a series, analyzes laws and regulations affecting women’s economic inclusion in 190 economies. The Women, Business and the Law Index, composed by eight indicators structured around women’s interactions with the law as they begin, progress through and end their careers, aligns different areas of the law with the economic decisions women make at various stages of their lives. The indicators are: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and Pension. The report updates all indicators as of September 1, 2019, and builds evidence around the linkages between legal gender equality and women’s economic inclusion. By examining the economic decisions women make as they go through different stages of their working lives and the pace of reforms over the past 2 years, Women, Business and the Law makes an important contribution to research and policy discussions about the state of women’s economic opportunities and empowerment. While celebrating the progress made, the data and analysis emphasize the work still to be done to ensure economic empowerment for all.Publication World Development Report 1989(New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)This is the twelfth in the annual series assessing major development issues. Economic growth rates among the developing countries have varied considerably. The external environment has had an adverse impact on growth, but domestic policies have been more important. Countries striving to adjust their economies have had considerable success reducing external imbalances but less success with internal balance. In the absence of large inflows of foreign capital, countries will need to rely on the mobilization of domestic financial resources. The structure of a country's financial system reflects its economic philosophy; the present financial structure of many developing countries reflects their approach to development in the 1960s and 1970s, an approach that emphasized government intervention in the economy. Today many countries are revising their approach to rely more heavily on the private sector. For the financial sector, this implies a smaller role for government in the allocation of credit, determination of interest rates, and the daily decisionmaking of financial intermediation. Relaxation of these controls calls for an effective system of prudent regulation and supervision. Hence while the objective is an open market, countries should not remove all capital controls until other economic and financial reforms are in place.Publication Enabling Private Investment in Climate Adaptation and Resilience(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03-02)This report identifies ways to overcome key barriers to private sector investment in adaptation and resilience, laying out a coordinated and data-driven Blueprint for Action to help governments and their development partners to close the adaptation finance gap. Although climate adaptation finance flows have increased by 35% in recent years, they still fall short of what is needed to avoid severe economic and human impacts from climate change. The urgent need for boosting investment in climate adaptation and resilience cannot be overstated. Much remains to be learned about how to unlock and enable private capital to help finance national and local adaptation priorities, and how to build the business case for adaptation. The report offers a snapshot of current levels of private financing for climate adaptation and how they fit into global efforts to finance climate resilience-building around the world. It documents the main barriers that have stymied private investment in adaptation to date. The report proposes a blueprint for action--a concrete, stepped approach for governments to address barriers to private investment in adaptation and resilience--so private capital can actively contribute to financing national and local priorities. The blueprint provides five entry points to enable private investment. The Blueprint for action we propose in the report represents a novel coordinated framework for action for governments to develop, finance, and implement priority adaptation and resilience investments – driven by countries’ goals and national investment plans that can help accelerate and scale up investment to address the climate resilience needs of the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities and economies.