South Asia is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s population and is a region of dynamic economic growth, yet it performs relatively poorly on health and nutrition indicators.

The epidemiological and nutrition transition of Latin American countries imposes a double challenge for nutrition and food security public policies. On the one hand, to continue the task of eradicating young child undernutrition and, on the other, to face the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity.

The report estimates the costs, impacts and financing scenarios to achieve the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets for stunting, anemia in women, exclusive breastfeeding and the scaling up of the treatment of severe wasting among young children.

India is clearly far along in the nutrition transition. This paper shows that there have been rapid increases in the proportion of adult women in India who are overweight and obese: these increases are seen not just in urban but in rural areas as well, and there are regional specificities.

In India, peri-urban areas are too often neglected. Many people live in poverty and face increasing marginalisation and food insecurity. Yet peri-urban agriculture could be a major contributor to poverty alleviation and food security.

Examining the SDGs goal by goal shows that governments will confront many common and fundamental challenges as they work to advance sustainable development. This report examines each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and describes the outlook for achieving each one in the Asia-Pacific region.