The 2014 Global Nutrition Report noted that today poor nutrition has many different faces: “From children living under famine conditions who appear to be made of skin and bone, to adults who have trouble breathing owing to obesity.”

These two sides of the malnutrition issue are increasingly being referred to as a “double burden” for public health. While around 2 billion people are estimated to be deficient in at least one micronutrient, at the other side of the spectrum, nearly 1.5 billion are thought to be overweight, and over 500 million obese.

And it is by no means a problem confined to developed nations. According to the World Health Organisation over 75% of overweight children live in developing countries, and this is increasing at a 30% higher rate in low and middle-income countries.

For countries such as China and Brazil progress in tackling under nutrition has been followed by rising obesity levels, as food scarcity has given way to an era of availability, in particular of cheap, processed foods. In other countries, the double burden is being felt simultaneously: in Guatemala for example, 48% of children are stunted while 54% of adults are overweight. The impacts of both types of malnutrition can even be seen within the lifetime of a single individual: infants who experience poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of their life are at an increased risk of being overweight in later life.

So what needs to be done to detangle and tackle the overlapping issues of under nutrition and obesity? Is it a case of gaining more data to get a deeper understanding of malnutrition, or as the Global Nutrition Report 2014 suggests, will more alliances and collaboration help speed up progress? Can smart public health policies and education help prevent obesity becoming an inevitable outcome of development?

Join an expert panel on Thursday 14 May, 1–3pm BST, to discuss these questions and more.

The live chat is not video or audio-enabled but will take place in the comments section (below). Get in touch via globaldevpros@theguardian.com or @GuardianGDP on Twitter to recommend someone for our expert panel. Follow the discussion using the hashtag #globaldevlive.

Panel

Francesco Branca, director at the department of nutrition for health and development, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, @WHO
Francesco is a medical doctor with a PhD in Nutrition, currently leading WHO’s work on nutrition policy, guidelines and surveillance.

Lawrence Haddad, senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, London, UK. @l_haddad
Lawrence is an economist with special interest in the relationship between poverty, food security and malnutrition. He is currently senior research fellow at IFPRI and contributed to the Global Nutrition Report.

Kavita Sethuraman, technical advisor maternal and child health and nutrition, FHI360, Washington DC
Dr. Kavita Sethuraman has worked more than 20 years on maternal and child health, and nutrition and gender.

Patrizia Fracassi, senior nutrition analyst and strategy advisor, SUN Movement Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland, @pat_fracassi
Patrizia has worked in India, Vietnam, Uganda and Ethiopia. She is an independent team member for the Global Nutrition Report.

Dominic Schofield, director, GAIN Canada, and senior technical adviser, policy and programmes. @dschofieldGAIN @GAINalliance
Dominic’s work at GAIN has focused on addressing malnutrition in developing countries through multi-sector alliances. Prior to this, he served as food fortification specialist at Unicef.

Clara Picanyol i Puig, public finance specialist, social policy programme, Oxford Policy Management, Oxford, UK, @clarapicanyol
Clara is an economist and has worked with the nutrition and food security team at Oxford Policy Management and on projects tracking investments in nutrition.

Carlos Grijalva-Eternod, research associate, UCL Institute for Global Health, London, UK
Carlos is a public health nutritionist at the UCL Institute for Global Health and works in the UK, North Africa and Latin America.

Bruce Y. Lee, director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center and associate professor of international health, Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, US, @bruce_y_lee
Bruce is currently director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center, and has extensive experience in global health, academia, and industry.

Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of Global Nutrition Report’s Independent Expert Group, Cambridge, UK, @corinnahawkes
Corinna is a specialist in food systems and food policy approaches to addressing malnutrition in all its forms.

Komal Bhatia, data analyst, Global Nutrition Report Secretariat, Institute of Development Studies, London, UK, @KomalBhatia89 @IDS_UK
Komal is a public health nutritionist at the Institute of Development Studies and is a data analyst for the Global Nutrition Report.