Paris, Geneva:
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) joins world leaders and organisations at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit to press for smarter nutrition financing, stronger private sector engagement and swifter actions on nutrition commitments made.
With the United States eliminating $60 billion in grants and the U.K significantly scaling back its foreign aid budget, the urgency is clear. Without new approaches and commitments, the world is at the threshold of reversing decades of progress made in bringing down malnutrition.
“When aid to nutrition is cut, lives will be lost – children under three, the most vulnerable across the world will suffer the most. This crisis requires rethinking how we deploy aid to unlock much larger investments in nutrition. Each one of us, committed to nutrition must accelerate our actions and strategically innovate to protect the most vulnerable from slipping back into malnutrition,”
Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition
"We support the efforts of the host France to make lending by banks and investors focus more on programmes which will help improve food security and make diets healthier"
With the 2024 Food Systems Countdown Report showing that only 20 of the 42 global food systems indicators are improving, it is evident that food systems transformation is slow.
GAIN is calling on governments and development partners to shift gears –
Smarter Nutrition Financing
It is time to re-think how nutrition is funded by encouraging stronger collaboration between Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), donors and the private sector to unlock sustainable nutrition financing. We urge DFIs to invest not just in infrastructure, but to look at nutrition as ‘human infrastructure’. We need to create new financial models and products to support SMEs in food systems with consistent access to finance. And we need to leverage limited and ever-shrinking public resources to unlock long-term private sector investment.
Stronger Private Sector Engagement
GAIN emphasises the critical role of private sector in the fight against malnutrition. Businesses have the power to drive large-scale change, through either product innovation, responsible marketing, or workforce nutrition programmes. Therefore, public policies should create an enabling environment for businesses to invest in nutrition. At the N4G GAIN launched The Paris Declaration on Business & Nutrition 2030 – a framework outlining how governments, businesses and investors can work together to build a stronger global “nutrition economy.”
Swifter Action on Commitments
GAIN urges governments, businesses and development organisations to move beyond commitments and take swifter, concrete measurable actions. The Paris N4G Summit is not only an opportunity to renew commitments, but also to align efforts, drive investments and implement solutions that will safeguard nutrition for millions.
GAIN has been one of the official partners involved in the N4G process actively contributing to ensure that nutrition is uplifted in the global agenda – politically and financially.