Video: Secretary Clinton on1,000 Days to Scale Up Nutrition for Mothers and Children

This is Hillary Clinton's most important initiative hands down. No other initiative can have traction if we do not first address this issue.

1,000 Days to Scale Up Nutrition for Mothers and Children

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

June 13, 2011

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Good morning. I want to thank “Bread for the World” and “Concern Worldwide” for hosting this event to highlight the importance of improving nutrition for mothers and their children. The people of the United States and the people of Ireland are working together to find more ways to improve maternal and child nutrition in the 1,000 day window between pregnancy and when a child turns 2 years old, when nutrition is most critical for saving lives and promoting cognitive and physical development. Your collaboration and innovation at this conference is truly saving lives.

Last September, I was honored to help launch the “1,000 Days” partnership, which is committed to advancing the work you are doing here today. “1,000 Days” is helping to scale up our nutrition efforts by drawing attention to the 1,000 day window of opportunity and by challenging stakeholders to achieve results in the 1,000 days between September 2010 and June 2013.

We are just over a quarter of the way through this challenge, and we are already making important headway. We have increased our investments in nutrition; we are better coordinated on the ground; and we are supporting more countries in their efforts to elevate nutrition.

Together with the Government of Ireland, I recently announced a new commitment to Tanzania, where the government is boldly leading an effort to improve nutrition and food security for its people. The United States is increasing our nutrition funding in Tanzania by more than fourfold, and we are devoting more of our agricultural resources to programs with greater impact on nutrition outcomes.

Today, I am pleased to launch a new tool that will help us build stronger, healthier futures for more. Thethousanddays.org website has been redesigned to serve as a platform for the global nutrition community to share ideas, lessons learned, and notes from the field. It will also provide advocacy tools so that together we keep nutrition at the forefront of the international agenda -- where it belongs.

So, thank you for your dedication to improving nutrition in this critical window and for your continued support during our 1,000 days of action. I wish you a productive and successful meeting, and I can’t wait to hear what new ideas and approaches you come up with. Thank you very much.