Malnutrition is directly linked to around half of under-five deaths. It stops children reaching their full potential in school and limits their future life chances. In last week’s announcement of aid cuts, the Government was clear that the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will keep a focus on poverty reduction for the ‘bottom billion’, climate change, girls education, and the response to COVID-19.
This is welcome but misses a crucial link: tackling malnutrition is central to achieving all other goals. It’s a hurdle right at the start of a child’s development. And if it’s not overcome then it will always remain a barrier to children’s progress.
Survive and Thrive
Good nutrition is a vital foundation for every child. By getting the right nutrients, children grow their bodies and brains. It helps to build strong immune systems, unlocks economic potential and gives children the best chance at living their best possible life. It helps them to survive, and to thrive.
And yet the global scale of the problem is shocking. Nearly 150 million children under the age of five are stunted (too short for their age) a key determinant of malnutrition, according to the 2020 Global Nutrition Report, ‘Malnutrition persists at unacceptably high levels on a global scale’. And COVID-19 is likely to make this worse, with catastrophic warnings of up to 12,000 people dying every day from hunger.
UK Leadership and the legacy of London 2012
In the summer of 2012, the world’s eyes were on London for the Olympic Games. Those few dramatic weeks still tug at our emotions as we reflect on Britain at its best. Britain looked back and challenged the world to make bold steps to end malnutrition, hosting the 2013 Nutrition for Growth Summit and generating billions of pounds in global commitments – and a huge amount of impact. Since 2015 the UK has reached 50.6 million children, women and adolescent girls with nutrition programmes. That’s about the same amount as the number of people who live in England. But this nutrition commitment expires this year. So what next?
At a time of international crisis, Britain must not step back from its central role in ensuring that all children, everywhere, have the nutrition they need to grow up with the best chance in life. It is common sense for the new department to focus where the work is vital, but also where the UK has the possibility to make a real difference. Nutrition is a great example of this. But the UK’s nutrition spend fell in 2018 and could have fallen further in 2019.
There’s a huge opportunity here.
Recommitting to tackling malnutrition this year would be a strong way to demonstrate the new FCDO is serious about its focus. Good nutrition matters for poverty reduction, for unlocking economic potential, for businesses. As a leader in this space it has influence over the direction of this crucial area. And as a strong partner with the Japanese Government in setting up a new summit, it has helped foster good bilateral relationships. Failing to make a commitment would seriously undermine its purpose and its other development work.
Build Back Better
But what does this all mean in a practical sense? There are three clear things the Government can do:
- Maintain the current level of nutrition funding - it is clear given how important nutrition is that there should be no cutting back of programmes specifically designed to improve nutrition. When the need is so great the damage could be catastrophic.
- Make nutrition central to hunger responses – Responses to COVID-19 exacerbated food crises must prioritise nutritional content within food and not just calories. Not doing this risks compounding the numbers facing malnutrition
- Better integrate nutrition – By adding nutrition objectives to related areas of work the Government can get more impact for its investment. This needs a strong, centralised nutrition team working across FCDO to ensure its work on education, climate, social protection, health and many other relevant issues are considering nutrition.
It can do all of this through making a new Nutrition for Growth Commitment.
Read more from our blog series on The Future of British Aid.
