policy to address overweight and more than two thirds of
them had policy to address undernutrition. In Sub Saharan
region, 80.9% and 46.8% of LAMICs had policy to address
undernutrition and overweight, respectively.
Table 3 shows distribution of presence of nutrition
policies and governance stratified by country’s level of
development. A total of 31 out of 36 LICs had nutrition
policy to address undernutrition, a higher proportion
compared to that of MICs (86.1% vs. 63.1%, p = 0.002).
More than half of both LICs (55.6%) and MICs (54.4%)
had no nutrition policy to address overweight and obesity.
A total of 55 out of 139 LICs and MICs had policies
that address the burdens of both undernutrition and overweight/
obesity. This translates to only 39.6% of all countries
under this income level. Of them, 16 (44.4%) were
LICs and 39 (37.9%) were MICs. The difference between
them did not reach a significant level (p = 0.487).
About one quarter of MICs with nutrition policies to
address undernutrition had developed the policies more
than ten years ago. This compares with less than one tenth
of the policies present in LICs being developed more than
ten years ago. Also, although only 16 LICs out of 31 had
policies to address overweight and obesity, all were made
within the past ten years. Among MICs, five had policies
to address overweight and obesity that were developed
more than ten years ago (Table 3).