On March 27th and 28th, the Nutrition 4 Growth (N4G) Summit took place in Paris, France. This summit aims to put nutrition back at the heart of the development agenda, in a year which marks the end of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.
“The European Union will continue to lead by example, leaving no one behind,” declared Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality. The European Commission has followed up on its promise to deliver an ambitious pledge, with an announced €3.4 billion over the 2024-2027 period. GHA applauds these renewed financial commitments, which uphold the EU’s support for nutrition and food safety.
Today, more than 45 million children still suffer from severe acute malnutrition, and the global food crisis, exacerbated by conflicts, climate change and inequalities must be addressed in a collective manner. At a time where severe budgetary cuts from historical donors have already started impacting food aid, possibly resulting in at least 14 million affected children unable to access aid in 2025 alone, the European Union has a key opportunity to reassert its leading role in global health, by taking concrete action in a Team Europe approach, including via EIB investments under the Global Gateway.
We thus call on the EU to expand its support for nutrition beyond N4G pledges and ad-hoc commitments through strong policy commitments by renewing, for instance, the European Action Plan for Nutrition for a further five years starting in 2025. This, among other measures, would provide strong support for the Commission to deliver its pledge.
Furthermore, the EU must make nutrition a key component of the EU-Africa relationship by seizing the opportunities presented by the upcoming EU-AU Ministerial planned for this spring, and the EU-AU Summit which will take place later this year.
Finally, we also call on the European Commission to foster complementarity between humanitarian and development investments, as underlined by Commissioner Hadja Lahbib during her speech at N4G: increased collaboration and integrated approaches to nutrition will be essential to saving lives and ending malnutrition.
1Press release on the European Commission’s pledge for N4G 2025: https://civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu/news-stories/news/eu-pledges-eu34-billion-combat-global-malnutrition-2025-03-27_en
2 United Nations – Adoption of the resolution on the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (25 March 2025) https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/france-and-the-united-nations/news-and-events/news/article/united-nations-adoption-of-the-resolution-on-the-un-decade-of-action-on
3En 2025, 14 millions d’enfants au moins risquent d’être privés de services de nutrition essentiels (2025) UNICEF. Available at: https://www.unicef.fr/article/en-2025-14-millions-denfants-au-moins-risquent-detre-prives-de-services-de-nutrition-essentiels/
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