Feeding people is smart: It's the best investment to do good in the world

2 billion people in the world are still malnourished, and more than 800 million suffer from chronic hunger.

Economic research shows that providing adequate nutrition to pre-schoolers is the best way to spend a dollar to do good in the world.

Nutrition is not just about avoiding hunger and securing human decency. If you don’t get enough food, you don’t develop – we see this in kids being stunted, that is growing less than they should. Lack of food and micronutrients also affects their muscle and brain growth; it damages spatial navigation and memory formation, leading to loss of cognitive abilities. This prevents the affected from reaching their full potential as grown-ups, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in productivity in the developing world.

There are nearly 180 million preschool-age children who do not get vital nutrients. But there are ways to help this next generation of kids. For the Copenhagen Consensus, John Hoddinott of the International Food Policy Research Institute and Peter Orazem of Iowa State University show how an investment of $3 billion annually could purchase a bundle of nutrition interventions, including micronutrient provision, complementary foods, treatment for worms and diarrheal diseases, and behavior-change programs, all of which could reduce chronic under-nutrition by 36% in developing countries.

Achieving this means ensuring more than 100 million children could start their lives without stunted growth. And the benefits would stay with them for life.

Ultimately, when all benefits are translated into economic terms, every dollar spent on nutrient provision will likely do $59 worth of global good.