In the late 1960s, when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) began to invest in nutrition, work on nutrition in an international context was just beginning, with little known about the causes, consequences and solutions for undernutrition.

Since the 1960s, there has been much improvement in global nutrition. As documented in this history, USAID has played a leading role in the progress made; USAID’s unique and pioneering role in research to answer questions and implement solutions has brought better nutrition where needed, especially for mothers and children. Through close collaboration with partners, host-country governments and the global nutrition community as a whole, USAID has worked at the intersection of this complex dynamic in research, implementation, training and assessment to save lives and improve the future for millions of the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

This resource features chapters on USAID’s support for specific nutrition focus areas, vulnerable populations and interventions, and highlights some of the Agency's key contributions and groundbreaking work in diferent areas over the past 50 years. The following is a snapshot of some of these results.