Malnutrition is crippling Bolivia, afflicting approximately one in four babies born there each year. Despite high annual expenditures on improving nutrition and food security, and notwithstanding some stunning successes in the past two decades, the fundamental problem is still not improving. This book begins by defining the nature and extent of the malnutrition problem in Bolivia, its causes, and its occurrence relative to wealth, location, and ethnicity. It goes on to identify the underlying reasons for the failed response, asserting that the most fundamental barrier to progress is a general misunderstanding about the causes of malnutrition and its solutions. The result is that resources are spent on the wrong programs and the wrong segments of the population.
Sebastian Edwards, Liaquat Ahamed, National Bureau of Economic Research, World Bank, Bank for International Settlements. Monetary and Economic Dept, Gonzalo Rodríguez Prada
