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Malnutrition is worsening across the world. With the upcoming international Nutrition for Growth (N4G) summit to be held in Paris in March 2025 and the upcoming discussions regarding the EU’s MFF – and while austerity measures are spreading across Europe – Global Health Advocates is actively working, in particular as part of the Generation Nutrition coalition at the EU level, to ensure that the year 2025 marks a significant step forward in the eradication of malnutrition worldwide.

WHY GET INVOLVED?

Food insecurity and malnutrition have a brutal and lasting impact on people’s health and their overall development. Inequalities linked to socio-economic circumstances, gender and access to health services, as well as weak food and education systems, climate disasters and their consequences, and the multiplication of health crises and conflicts all actively fuel malnutrition worldwide. These major challenges impact food and dietary habits, and threaten the goal of ensuring the world’s population has access to sustainable and healthy food. In 2022, up to  30% of the world’s population was living with moderate or severe food insecurity.

1 person dies of hunger or from its consequences every 4 seconds worldwide (Care France, 2022).

This tragic situation disproportionately affects the most vulnerable populations, particularly women and children.

1 billion women and girls worldwide suffer from undernutrition (UNICEF, 2023).

In its latest blog series, Global Health Advocates highlighted the vulnerability of women and girls to the various forms of malnutrition and explored the synergies between the fight against malnutrition and the fight for greater gender equality.

In the OPINIONS series of September 2024, 3 experts in nutrition and gender issues agreed to answer our questions on the impact of gender inequalities on women’s and girls’ nutrition and on the commitments needed from the international community at the next N4G summit.

  • Abena Thomas-Mambwe - EN
  • Hélène Gnionsahé - EN
  • Vilma Tyler - EN
Find the series here

Despite attempts and efforts made by the international community over the last fifteen years, current choices, political commitments, and funding do not meet existing needs – which are constantly increasing – and it is already apparent  that global nutrition targets will not be met by 2030.

As a Global Health leader, the European Union must continue to restate its support and  ensure the success of the next N4G summit. To achieve this, we call on the EU to support  the revision of the current objectives and to strengthen its political and financial commitments to allow the international community as a whole to respond more effectively to the challenges posed by malnutrition.

Last June, Global Health Advocates co-authored a report together with  the Generation Nutrition coalition which provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of European Official Development Assistance (ODA) for nutrition, and highlights the challenges within the existing financing model to prioritise and integrate nutrition into broader spending sectors.
In November, Global Health Advocates signed a joint position paper calling on the EU to approve a new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)  that delivers for people and planet.

OPPPORTUNITIES

  • The EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)

The upcoming discussions on the EU’s MFF are a key opportunity to ensure adequate funding for the fight against malnutrition.

  • The next edition of the international Nutrition for Growth summit on 27 and 28 March 2025.

The N4G summit offers a crucial opportunity to further federate the international community around the fight against malnutrition, to mobilise large-scale, long-term political and financial support in the face of worsening nutritional crises, as well as to put gender issues on the agenda in the fight against malnutrition and to support the strengthening of food, health, and social protection systems.

  • 2025: the end of the nutrition targets set by the international community

2025 is a pivotal year, marking the end of the Decade of Action for Nutrition and the expiry of the global targets set by the United Nations and the European Union’s action plan for nutrition. The extension of the United Nations’ global targets until 2030 must mobilise the international community to rethink the coordination of all stakeholders in the fight against malnutrition.

  • “Zero Hunger” by 2030

2025 will also mark the final push towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 2, which aims to eradicate hunger, ensure food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture; and SDG 3, which aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at every age.

  • Engaging civil society in the fight against malnutrition 

The 2025 N4G summit, the 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women as well as the next SUN Global Gathering in 2025 all present opportunities for civil society to make its voice heard on existing needs. In a political landscape shaped by growing austerity measures, particularly on the European continent, and by cuts in the resources made available to civil societies around the world, these events will be key moments in the fight against malnutrition. Budget cuts always have a direct impact on human lives.