[3] Stunted growth is associated with poverty, maternal undernutrition, poor health, frequent illness, or inappropriate feeding practices and care during the early years of life.

[8] If a child is stunted at age 2, they tend to have a higher risk of poor cognitive and educational achievement in life, with subsequent socioeconomic and intergenerational consequences.

[21] Inadequate complementary child feeding and a general lack of vital nutrients besides pure caloric intake are some causes of stunted growth.

[23][24] Breastfeeding for a long time with inadequate complementary feeding leads to growth failure due to insufficient nutrients, which are essential for childhood development.

[27] Further, estimated stunting at 2 years attributed to fetal growth restriction and preterm birth in 2011 was 33% in all developing countries and 41% in South Asia.

[30] The ingestion of high quantities of fecal bacteria by young children through putting soiled fingers or household items in the mouth leads to intestinal infections.

[citation needed] Research on a global level has found that the proportion of stunting that could be attributed to five or more episodes of diarrhea before two years of age was 25%.

[34][35] This small bowel disorder can be attributed to sustained exposure to intestinal pathogens caused by fecal contamination of food and water.

[44] The first 1000 days in a child's life are a crucial "window of opportunity" because the brain develops rapidly, laying the foundation for future cognitive and social ability.

It is the time when they stop breast feeding (weaning process), begin to crawl, put things in their mouths and become exposed to fecal matter from open defecation and environmental enteropathies.

[53] Hence, factors explaining the shortfall in observed associations between child feeding practices and nutrient intake and linear growth, have increasingly been the focus of scientific interest.

[8] A well-nourished mother is the first step of stunting prevention, decreasing chances of the baby being born of low birth-weight, which is the first risk factor for future malnutrition.

[60][61] Similarly, studies supplementing LNS to mothers during pregnancy and lactation and their children during the complementary feeding period show heterogeneous results for stunting.

[65][66] As of 2015, it was estimated that there were 156 million stunted children under the age of 5 years old in the world, 90% of them living in low and low-middle income countries.

The data therefore indicates that the rate of reduction of stunting in Africa has not been able to counterbalance the increased number of growing children that fall into the trap of malnutrition, due to population growth in the region, creating a cycle.

This is also true in Oceania, unlike Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean where substantial absolute reductions in the number of stunted children have been observed.

[10] In the follow-up series in 2013,[9] the focus on undernutrition is expanded to the increasing burden of obesity in both high, middle and low income countries.

[9] The challenges these countries face are particularly difficult as they require intervening on two levels on what has come to be called “double burden of malnutrition”.

[69] The 2012 World Health Assembly, with its 194 member states, convened to discuss global issues of maternal, infant and young child nutrition, and developed a plan with 6 targets for 2025.

At the current reduction rate, the predicted number in 2025 will be 127 million, indicating the need to scale-up and intensify efforts if the global community is to reach its goals.

[8] The World Bank estimates that the extra cost to achieve the reduction goal will be $8.50 yearly per stunted child, for a total of $49.6 Billion for the next decade.

Sub-goal 2.2. aims to “by 2030 end all forms of malnutrition, including achieving by 2025 the internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under five years of age, and address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, and older persons”.

[72] It was launched at the UN General Assembly of 2010 and it calls for country-led multi-sectoral strategies to address child malnutrition by scaling-up evidence-based interventions in both nutrition specific and sensitive areas.

[8] This happened in association with impressive social and economic development that reduced the numbers of Brazilians living in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 per day) from 25.6% in 1990 to 4.8% in 2008.

[8] The successful reduction in child malnutrition in Brazil can be attributed to strong political commitment that led to improvements in the water and sanitation system, increased female schooling, scale-up of quality maternal and child health services, increased economic power at family level (including successful cash transfer programs), and improvements in food security throughout the country.

[75] Daily supplementation with egg, cow milk, and micronutrient powder found to be effective in improving linear growth of children in a community-based trial in Bangladesh.

[8] The State of Maharashtra in Central-Western India has been able to produce an impressive reduction in stunting rates in children under 2 years of age from 44% to 22.8% in the 2005–2012 period.

[8] This is particularly remarkable given the immense challenges India has faced to address malnutrition, and that the country hosts almost half of all stunted children under 5 in the world.

[8][37] This was achieved through integrated community-based programs that were designed by a central advisory body that promoted multisectoral collaboration, provided advice to policy-makers on evidence-based solutions, and advocated for the key role of the 1000 days (pregnancy and first two years of life).

[81] Researchers attribute the problem to micro-nutrient deficiencies brought on by poverty, maternal under-education, food insecurity, and poor environmental conditions.