Rationale and definition:
Micronutrients are essential for good health, however shortfalls of one or more micronutrients are common in some regions due to diet, poverty, and/or illness.
Disaggregation:
Disaggregated by age, socioeconomic status, rural/urban, and ethnicity or indigenous status.
Comments and limitations:
Tracking anemia in women of reproductive age accurately measures the risk of micronutrient deficiency to the most vulnerable (the developing fetus), but is not a perfect proxy for status of all micronutrients across all populations and sub-populations. Ideally, countries would track deficiencies of iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A, folate, vitamin B12, and vitamin D across all ages, genders, and other socioeconomic gradients. This would give a more robust portrait of the nutritional state of a country. Today it would be challenging to implement such an indicator, but the development of rapid diagnostic tests for micronutrient deficiency could make this feasible before the end of the SDG period. In fact, some countries are already collecting data on iron, iodine, vitamin A, folate, and vitamin B12 at a national level.
Preliminary assessment of current data availability by Friends of the Chair:
B
Primary data source:
Administrative data from health ministries survey reports.
Potential lead agency or agencies:
Such data is collected by FAO and WHO and would need to be combined into a composite index that would form an essential component of a post-2015 monitoring framework.
Persons have a shortfall in an essential micronutrient when that nutrient is not at adequate levels in the body. This could result from insufficient intake of the micronutrient in food, or insufficient uptake into the body due to illness.
United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition (2014). Measurement of and Accountability for Results in Nutrition In the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals: A Technical Note. United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition.
WHO (2014c).