Malnutrition is a condition that affects bodily capacities of an individual, including growth, pregnancy, lactation, resistance to illness, and cognitive and physical development.
Stunting can also have adverse effects on cognitive development, school performance, adult productivity and income, and maternal reproductive outcome.
[5] Major causes of malnutrition in Peru include food insecurity, diet, poverty, and agricultural productivity, with a combination of factors contributing to individual cases.
Additionally, access to clean water and sanitation services may be restricted due to poor living conditions, which increases the risk of infection transmission.
Three distinct geographic zones make up Peru: the Pacific coastal area, the Selva, lowland jungle of the Amazon River basin and the Sierra, Andean highlands.
[19] Government intervention to improve nutritional health began in the seventies with the creation of the National Office for Food Support (ONAA) in 1972, an organization that primarily handled donations from overseas aid groups.
These were neighborhood organizations initially started by churches or NGOs that eventually became supervised by the National Program for Food Assistance with the purpose of feeding the local population.
By 2002, Peru was spending $220 million on food and nutrition interventions per year, however the efforts remained insufficient to further reduce child stunting rates.
The failure to further reduce stunting rates was attributed to the lack of coordination and integration of the many different food programs, mostly Vaso de Leche, Commedores Populares, and Desayunos Escolares (a school feeding program established in 1966), "stunting rates declined from 36.5 per cent to 25.8 per cent between 1992 and 1996 but then flattened for the next ten years.
[25] They found that much of the budgeted money failed to reach the extreme poor and the geographically isolated, such as individuals living in remote, rural villages.
[26] There was high leakage in food and nutrition programs; more than US$1.2 billion was spent on this between 1996 and 2000 to yield a 1% decrease in the level chronic malnutrition in children under five.
[27] This was the National Strategy CRECER was created through an Executive Decree in 2007, as a "coordinated poverty reduction strategy that articulates all public offices in the National, Regional and Local Government, as well as the private sector, international cooperation and civil society in general, to promote, facilitate and execute poverty reduction and human development goals.
There are three main axis to the CRECER program: (1) the development of human capabilities and respect of fundamental rights, (2) the promotion of opportunities and economic capacities, and (3) the establishment of a social protection network.
The CNI serves another purpose of advocating for presidents and regional elected officials to keep their promise to reducing malnutrition, establishing long-term commitment from these leaders.
The study concluded that the VL program was effective at targeting households with low income or malnourished children, but it made no positive impact on reducing child stunting.
[34] Peru's conditional cash transfer program commenced in 2005, aiming to reduce poverty and promote better education and health practices.
[35] Eligible households must comply with conditions that include accessing basic public services for their children in order to receive a monthly cash transfer of US$30.
The program aims to focus more on addressing malnutrition in children, encouraging families to use the transfers to purchase more high protein foods.
A study conducted by Perova and Vakis revealed that the program increased spending on food categories such as breads and cereals, vegetables, fruits, and tubers among participating households compared to a control group.
Despite improving diets and increasing health service utilization, the JUNTOS program has not been able to affect final outcome indicators of nutrition.