Correlates and determinants of child anthropometrics in Latin America: background and overview of the symposium.

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) about one in six children under 5 years of age--or about 9 million children--suffer from longer-run undernourishment reflected in stunting. This paper introduces, places in perspective and presents a common micro analytical framework for the seven papers in this symposium that investigate the household and community determinants of child malnourishment in eight countries in LAC. These papers are the outcomes of a research project supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Research Department Latin American and Caribbean Research Network Project on "Child Health, Poverty and the Role of Social Policies" in 2003-2004.