Task Force member Asma Lateef is interviewed along with Roger Thurow, author of “The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—And The World,” on the Diane Rehm Show. Their conversation focuses on Thurow’s new book, which examines a growing international movement to address malnutrition during the critical period spanning a woman’s pregnancy to a child’s second birthday. Asma discusses the pivotal 2008 Lancet series on undernutrition, a nascent but growing commitment to bring nutrition interventions to scale, and the need to pursue a more integrated approach in order to better reach women and children. She drew on her experience from the April Task Force delegation to Zambia to highlight the importance of better integrating nutrition and health.
About the Author: Asma Lateef
Asma Lateef has been director of the Bread for the World
Institute since 2007. Ms. Lateef is responsible for
implementing the Institute’s analysis and education on
policy issues related to U.S. and global hunger,
malnutrition and poverty. Since 2010, she has been
involved in efforts to establish and support the Scaling
Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. She now serves on the
Steering Committee of the SUN Movement’s Civil Society
Network and is also a member of the executive committee of
the 1,000 Days Advocacy Working Group. Ms. Lateef has a
master’s degree in economics from the University of
Maryland, a post-graduate diploma in economics from the
London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in
Geography from McGill University. She has over 20 years of
experience in public policy and extensive experience
developing and implementing policy advocacy strategies.
Prior to becoming Institute Director, Ms. Lateef was
director of Policy and Programs at Citizens for Global
Solutions and a senior international policy analyst in the
Government Relations Department of Bread for the World. In
2003, she led Bread for the World’s campaign to support
the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
