Each Olympic/Paralympic games is now followed by a major global nutrition summit in the host city. Sunit Bagree of Results UK sets out what campaigners will be looking for this time, including billions in extra funding, giving grants not loans and supporting the most cost-effective interventions.
Every four years the Olympic/Paralympic host country also now hosts what has become a key moment for global nutrition, the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit, which gathers governments, the private sector and other international stakeholders to deliver “ambitious financial and political commitments” on ending global hunger and malnutrition.
The juxtaposition of the healthiest human beings on the planet with the most malnourished may seem surprising. But highlighting the difference in lives and life chances was precisely the point that drove the precursor “Hunger Summit” during the London 2012 Olympics/Paralympics (the first N4G summit was then held in London in 2013). As legendary long-distance runner Sir Mo Farah said in 2012 (just after winning his second Olympic gold medal): “It’s really important as an athlete to get it right, and I got it right at this championship. But mainly, the reason why I am here is I’m lucky to have set up a new life here… I originally came from Somalia as a little boy… there are kids out there who need opportunities in hunger, starving, so we must do something about it.”
‘The 16 countries most affected by food crises paid
US$40.3 billion in external public debt service in 2023’
This year’s summit, hosted by 2024 Olympics/Paralympics host nation France on 27-28 March, comes at a crucial moment as we reach the end of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. The problem N4G Paris must confront is that the world looks like it is going to miss the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets for 2025: that’s why it’s critical that the N4G deliver something better for the world’s malnourished as we work towards the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger (including ending malnutrition) by 2030. In this blog, I’ll outline the key financial and political pledges we need to see at the summit.
What financial commitments do we need?
N4G Paris must deliver on financing. As a member of the ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership, Results UK is calling for official donors to collectively make additional financial commitments of US$3.8 billion per year from 2025 to 2029.
It is crucial that this additional financing takes the form of grants and not loans. This is because many Global South countries are drowning in external public debt. For example, our research finds that the 16 countries most affected by food crises paid US$40.3 billion in external public debt service in 2023. On average, the governments of these countries are spending 1.9 times the amount on external public debt payments that they are spending on healthcare.
There is growing interest in debt-for-development swaps (redirecting money from debt payments to a development objective, such as strengthening healthcare). Any discussions on expanding such swaps and on debt in general at N4G must recognise the need for fundamental reforms to the global sovereign debt system – especially ensuring that sovereign debt distress is managed under the auspices of the United Nations rather than the G20; and releasing countries from an International Monetary Fund regime on debt sustainability that leaves them trapped in vicious borrowing cycles. Debt justice is essential if we are to have any chance of achieving global nutrition goals.
Invest in the things that work best
Where should this additional financing be concentrated? N4G Paris must address the need to invest in cost-effective interventions that impact on nutrition, such as prenatal multiple micronutrient supplementation, breastfeeding promotion and support, vitamin A supplementation and ready-to-use therapeutic food.
As a member of the International Coalition for Advocacy on Nutrition UK, Results UK is calling for the UK government to spend at least £500 million on such cost-effective specific interventions between 2025-2030. Other official donors should be similarly ambitious. At the same time, it is critical that these nutrition-specific interventions are delivered in ways that strengthen health, food and other systems.
What about political commitments?
Money, while essential, is not enough. Wider political commitments on nutrition are necessary at N4G Paris if the summit is to truly be a success. Four areas in particular are worth emphasising to global leaders.
First, as women and girls are disproportionately affected by malnutrition, protecting and empowering them must be a priority. Clearly, all nutrition programmes should enable women and girls to access nutritious diets. Yet it is also essential for gender inequalities to be confronted more directly, which means (among other things) that women and girls have to be at the heart of leading nutrition-related initiatives and resources.
Second, the private sector has to be robustly regulated to ensure that nutrition (and related) policies and programmes advance human rights and reduce socio-economic inequalities. Among other measures, this includes comprehensively regulating products (e.g. micronutrient supplements and breastmilk substitutes) and ensuring fair taxation (including to promote healthy diets).
Third, it is important to promote cross-sectoral collaboration and integrated programming. For example, immunisation-nutrition integration can generate ‘win-wins’ across different aspects of wellbeing and help to tackle the underlying causes of malnutrition. The OECD’s nutrition policy marker is a useful tool to promote integration. We are calling on official donors to use this policy marker in a consistent and transparent manner. Furthermore, we need action to tap into the vast potential of schools to advance child nutrition and health through integrated programming.
Fourth, genuine accountability is vital. At the global level, commitments on nutrition are monitored by the Global Nutrition Report (GNR), especially through its Nutrition Accountability Framework. At the local level, civil society organisations (CSOs) advocate on nutrition issues. Thus both the GNR and local CSOs should be properly supported by the international community.
We live in a world where the wealth of the super-rich is accelerating at the same time as more than one in three people cannot afford a healthy diet. That’s why N4G Paris cannot come too soon and must deliver real progress.
Sunit Bagree is Senior Policy Advocacy Officer at Results UK