On 21st September 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin hosted an international event aimed at pushing forward global efforts to reduce child undernutrition.

It placed the focus firmly on the ‘1,000 day window of opportunity’ - the critical period between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, after which the physical and mental damage caused by undernutrition is largely irreversible.

While acknowledging the challenges, Minister Martin emphasised that undernutrition is largely preventable and that proven interventions can bring exceptionally high development returns. In particular, he gave his backing to the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) roadmap and leadership from the UN Secretary-General in advancing it.

“Ireland will play its part,” Minister Martin pledged. “We are determined to work with our partners to deliver this action plan. We will support plans and actions that are owned and led by our partner countries. We will encourage the scale up of national programmes. And we will review our own development programmes through the lens of nutrition.” He also noted that the Irish Government had made a commitment to devote 20% of its overseas aid budget to hunger-reduction efforts.

The 1,000 Days initative came against the backdrop of a review of progress toward the 2015 UN Milennium Development Goals (MDGs) and calls for accelerating the pace.

Addressing the review, Minister of State for Overseas Development, Peter Power, said that “Ireland’s own history of famine echoes through the generations and drives our commitment to fight global hunger.”

He recalled that almost exactly two years earlier, the Irish Government’s Hunger Task Force Report had recommended three key actions to combat global hunger: boosting the productivity of small farmers in struggling areas, addressing mother-and-child malnutrition, and maintaining international political momentum.