School lunch in Rio de Janeiro in 2024 (Photo by Pablo Porciuncula)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It might seem that malnutrition is a problem only in poor countries. But \u201call countries face at least one form of malnutrition,\u201d according to the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, which last month hosted a significant global conference on funding nutrition programs.<\/p>\n
This conference in Paris, Nutrition for Growth (N4G), came at a challenging moment for international health funding. In recent months, the U.S.<\/a>, France, and other European countries<\/a> have announced sweeping foreign aid cuts. The consequences for nutrition have included smaller food rations in refugee camps<\/a> and paralysis of emergency food shipments<\/a>.<\/p>\n Researchers have estimated that recently announced cuts in donor funding for severe acute malnutrition will affect 2.3 million children<\/a>. In one year, 369,000 children are likely to die as a result. Each would be a preventable tragedy.<\/p>\n And beyond this, the shutdowns of research to improve farming practices<\/a>, information systems to predict famines<\/a>, and projects addressing child malnutrition<\/a> will translate into less healthy lives and economies. A less stable food supply will also seed insecurity<\/a> both overseas and in the U.S., for instance.<\/p>\n So it was some relief that the N4G summit led to pledges of over $27 billion for nutrition programs. Though this is about the same as what was raised at the last N4G summit four years ago, during this difficult time the amount surpassed most expectations.<\/p>\n However, it will remain important to scrutinize whether and how those pledges actually materialize. Following the first N4G summit in 2013, half<\/a> of the pledging organizations failed to reach at least one of their targets, or did not respond to the Global Nutrition Report about their progress.<\/p>\n The commitments this time around came from a range of private, philanthropic, intergovernmental, and government agencies, though not from the U.S. and U.K.<\/a> (despite recommendations<\/a>). From school meals to prenatal vitamins, these funders are generally attempting to do more with less, by honing in on the core areas where they believe nutrition is most urgent. They\u2019re also hammering home the economic case for nutrition as a sound investment in productivity and prosperity<\/a>.<\/p>\n But improving nutrition is not just an issue for over there. One of the Sustainable Development Goals most off-track is the ambitious SDG 2: \u201cEnd hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.\u201d This goal comes with several targets<\/a>, including ending all forms of hunger and malnutrition by 2030, alongside doubling the income of small-scale food producers.<\/p>\n The United Nations continues to tinker with the indicators of progress, and recently introduced a new metric of minimum dietary diversity<\/a> for infants and women of reproductive age. Thus, balanced diets are now explicitly factored in (although as with some of the other indicators, data is patchy). All told, zero hunger has proven one of the most challenging of goals<\/a> to achieve worldwide.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically nobody performs really well on this goal,\u201d commented Guillaume Lafortune, vice president of the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). That is, just about every country faces issues related to undernourishment (such as anemic pregnant women), unhealthy diets (measured in terms of underweight and overweight children), or a combination of these. It\u2019s a universal challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n So sustained attention to nutrition is important to protect the gains that have been made. Hunger has fallen dramatically over the decades, but this progress has now slowed<\/a>. Action in every part of the world will be needed to keep pushing malnutrition toward zero.<\/p>\n Here are three countries\u2019 snapshots of the work in progress.<\/p>\n France: Enhancing diets<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s perhaps no better sign of the incomplete progress made on nutrition than the resurgence of diseases of nutritional insufficiency that should be easy to eradicate. In wealthy countries, \u201cscurvy is coming back,\u201d pointed out Brieuc Pont, the French diplomat who led the N4G summit. In France this is linked to poverty and inequality<\/a>, leading to calls for strengthened food and social programs.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not only poverty that is leading to nutritional problems in France, whose government has said that its domestic SDG 2 challenge is more about enhanced nutrition<\/a> than food security. In this, France isn\u2019t alone among its neighbors. As stated by a recent report<\/a> that Lafortune coauthored for the European Economic and Social Committee, which advises the European Union, \u201cThe average EU diet is not healthy and leads to high health and environmental costs.\u201d<\/p>\n This research has identified that especially pressing challenges for the EU\u2019s food transition are the lack of financial incentives to consume healthy products; the marketing of foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt; and lack of financial support for farmers to ease the transition. Clearly, then, attention is needed to both the demand and supply sides of nutritious food. But demand has been overlooked. There are many political and social obstacles to addressing demand, which would involve, for instance, encouraging \u201cplant-forward diets.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In some respects, France isn\u2019t doing badly on nutrition compared to other countries. For instance, its diabetes rate<\/a> isn\u2019t in the high range for the EU. And Lafortune appreciates Nutri-Score, a labelling system that assigns color-coded grades based on the nutritional value of foods. This was devised in France, and has since rolled out to some other European countries. The Nutri-Score system is imperfect<\/a>, and sometimes the grades are puzzling. But the fact that this nutritional guidance exists at all, despite much industry opposition in a country with a very protective food culture, offers hope to observers like Lafortune.<\/p>\n Brazil: Mixed messages on unhealthy industries<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cBrazil is a case study\u201d for school meals, Pont declared. The country\u2019s school feeding strategy has evolved since the mid-20th century, when it focused on cutting hunger. But as hunger became less common (though not eliminated), obesity became more common. A 2019 study found that 22% of Brazilian adolescents were prediabetic<\/a>. These issues have led to more attention to not just the amount of food made accessible, but also the type and quality of food. Nutritionists prepare menus<\/a> for public schools, which provide food for all students. Admittedly, the carefully balanced meals aren\u2019t always popular.<\/p>\n In some ways Brazil\u2019s public health system has shown boldness in taking on nutrition-harming industries. School meal programs have limited salt, sugar, and\u2014in a world-leading move\u2014ultra-processed foods<\/a>. The basic food basket, an indicator of commonly consumed foods, also now excludes ultra-processed foods (though the links between nutrition and food processing aren\u2019t straightforward<\/a>). Supporters say that these changes will bolster not only health, but also traditional culinary practices and local food industries.<\/p>\n However, the government has proven less willing to take on another food industry with consequences for human and environmental health: large-scale livestock farming. In general at the N4G summit, and in particular at a side event at the Brazilian embassy themed around food systems and climate change, discussions of climate change were timid about mentioning industrial livestock\u2019s role in land-use change. The Brazilian government has no plans at the national level to reconsider the amount of animal protein in school meals (and attempts to do so locally<\/a> have proven controversial).<\/p>\n Helena Lettieri, a lawyer who volunteers with animal rights organizations in Brazil, was disappointed by the unwillingness to address Brazil\u2019s reliance on animal protein. Given how connected the Brazilian government is to agribusiness, she said, she didn\u2019t expect it to meaningfully address the impacts of beef at nutrition or climate conferences\u2014including the upcoming COP to be held in the Amazon.<\/p>\n Nigeria: Striving for self-sufficiency<\/strong><\/p>\n Nigerian nutrition programs<\/a> have been hit hard<\/a> by the withdrawal of USAID funds. In general, the effects of the sudden aid cuts on Nigeria\u2019s health sector have prompted much reflection<\/a> about self-determination<\/a>. When it comes to nutrition, self-sufficiency is broader than the source of the funds. It also extends to the source of the food.<\/p>\n For instance, Nigeria, like Brazil, has been a leader on school meals. The Home Grown School Feeding Programme provides a market for locally grown food, and has helped boost enrollment in primary school<\/a>. According to Robert Akparibo, a global health and nutrition researcher at the University of Sheffield in the UK, <\/strong>Nigeria has reached 100% domestic production of school meals.<\/p>\n But when it comes to emergency feeding programs, it has not been so easy to source from home. Abdoulkader Yonli is the managing director of Nutri K, which manufactures the therapeutic food Plumpy\u2019Nut (essentially a fortified peanut paste given to severely malnourished children). 60% of inputs into Plumpy\u2019Nut are imported, Yonli said. Therapeutic foods require uniform ingredients, which can\u2019t yet be guaranteed in Nigerian peanut farming. As well, the fungal toxin aflatoxin<\/a> continues to harm the domestic peanut supply. Agriculture in Northern Nigeria continues to be challenged by what Yonli identified as the two biggest threats: armed violence and climate change. These challenges will be very difficult to overcome.<\/p>\n Overall, it\u2019s sobering to realize that even the world\u2019s largest and wealthiest countries haven\u2019t achieved global nutrition goals. But as Pont said, that can\u2019t stop us from trying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School lunch in Rio de Janeiro in 2024 (Photo by Pablo Porciuncula) AFP via Getty Images It might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[7908,105,15481,4434,15480,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-25216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-food-security","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-n4g","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-nutrition-for-growth","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114348624649362795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}