Peru has managed to reduce its chronic child malnutrition rate from 28% to 13% in less than a decade, World Bank Group officer Jose Carlos Ferreyra pointed out.
According to Ferreyra, "the Peruvian government —in coordination with civil society organizations and the international community— made the reduction of chronic malnutrition its business."
Political commitment
"It was treated as a serious human development issue. It was recognized as a social, economic, and health challenge," Ferreyra noted in this sense.
He went on to add "civil society organizations convinced presidential candidates to invest more in human capital by establishing specific targets for the country and taking significant steps to ensure that children get a good start in their first 1,000 days of life."
Peru's Lesson
Within this framework, Peru has
welcomed several governments facing similar situations from Cameroon, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania to learn from this success.
Therefore, Peru "
offers us an exceptional example of how, through cross-sectoral and timely investments in its people, a nation can turn political commitment, good policies and governance into better health, education and social services for the communities," he concluded.