Devex Dish: A dose of hope as Nutrition for Growth exceeds expectations

In an era when so much in the foreign aid world feels grim, last week’s Nutrition for Growth summit in Paris was a much-needed dose of good news. One NGO leader told Tania he feels “rejuvenated by hope,” a sentiment echoed by many attendees.  

It was the first major global pledging conference since the Trump administration announced in January that it would cut the majority of U.S. humanitarian and development aid. Few people thought the summit’s financial commitments would reach, let alone surpass, the previous N4G in Tokyo in 2021.

And yet that’s exactly what happened: Organizers and nutrition advocates mobilized $27.55 billion, without financial commitments from the United States or the United Kingdom. The U.S. had committed $11 billion in 2021, or almost half of what was raised at that event.  

“The summit is a rallying cry to the troops and a call to go the extra mile for nutrition, a call that many heeded in Paris,” Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, told Tania afterward. Or as France’s Special Envoy for Nutrition Brieuc Pont put it: “I’ve always said it’s not a beauty contest. But it feels good to feel beautiful.”

Among the more notable commitments: The European Union increased its pledge to fight malnutrition by nearly 40% compared to its 2021 pledge, reaching €6.5 billion, out of which the European Commission allocated €3.4 billion, much of it for sub-Saharan Africa; the African Development Bank pledged $9.5 billion; and the World Bank committed $5 billion. Other countries, including Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala, and Bangladesh also made noteworthy political and financial commitments.

At an event hosted by Stronger Foundations for Nutrition, philanthropies committed $2 billion, much of it for evidence-based interventions such as school meals and multiple micronutrient supplements, or prenatal vitamins — while addressing several U.N. Sustainable Development Goals at once. For example, the Rockefeller Foundation’s $100 million commitment to help up to 15 countries boost school meals also aims to enhance local food systems and promote climate-resilient agriculture.  

So does this mean the world can go without foreign aid from the U.S. and other Western donors? For now, there’s no other choice. If there’s one thing we learned in Paris, it’s that necessity is the mother of invention.

“First, aid will have to be targeted much better to the most vulnerable. Second, we will have to use aid to leverage concessional financing and use concessional financing to leverage the private sector,” Haddad said. Nutrition advocates and aid implementers must do more with less. In the meantime, more and more lower-income countries facing severe malnutrition burdens are devoting domestic budget lines to tackling the problem.  

“We’re moving toward a post-ODA era, and we can’t let nutrition fall,” said Joel Spicer, president and CEO of Nutrition International, referring to official development assistance. “What we saw at this summit was a coming together of two dialects — the nutrition conversation and the financing conversation — in a much more pragmatic way.” Multilateral banks, in particular, are doing ever more in the nutrition space, and that financing can move the needle on problems such as anemia, stunting, and low birthweight. Their untapped potential, Spicer pointed out, was one of the most important topics at N4G.

ICYMI: Nutrition for Growth summit raises $27B to end malnutrition

See also: Prenatal vitamins get a fundraising boost at Nutrition for Growth summit

And don’t miss: New ways of fortifying food could save lives. Here’s how.

A mix of ingredients

“The vexing challenge with nutrition is that it's multisectoral,” Agnès Soucat, director for health, nutrition, and social protection with the French Development Agency, told Tania. “Nutrition is an outcome … and it's a result of a lot of interaction. So we need to work multisectorally.”

When it comes to working with countries, Soucat said, that means elevating discussions to the offices of the prime minister, president, or finance minister, so that nutrition policies and dialogues encompass agriculture, education, water and sanitation, and social protection.

Sierra Leone, for example, highlighted its food security program, Feed Salone, which launched in 2023 with the aim of reducing reliance on food imports, ending hunger and malnutrition, creating jobs in rural communities, and building resilience to climate change. It has since unlocked more than $1 billion in concessional and private funding from partners including AfDB, the Islamic Development Bank, and the World Bank.

Sierra Leone made 11 policy commitments at N4G. “We brought together all ministries: agriculture, gender, the ministry of health, ministry of youth, across the board, and we came up with commitments that every ministry that will own,” said Manty Tarawalli, a minister of state in the country’s Office of the Vice President, on N4G’s “The Politics of Ending Malnutrition” podcast. Those N4G pledges will now be translated into national commitments aimed at preventing malnutrition in the first place, she added.

N4G saw the launch of the Global Compact for Nutrition Integration, a pledge to integrate nutrition into programs such as health, climate, and social policy. It was led by the U.K.’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Scaling Up Nutrition, or SUN,  Movement, and so far, its signatories include 43 countries and 38 organizations.

Getting down to business

Another summit took place in Paris last week, and its goal was to bring the private sector — including “Big Food” companies — into the nutrition conversation. “Private Sector and Nutrition: Everybody’s Business” was hosted by GAIN, the Access to Nutrition initiative, and the Paris Peace Forum the day before N4G began.

Among the food corporations present were Danone, Nestle, Unilever, Tetra Pak, FrieslandCampina, Ajinomoto, Grupo Bimbo, and DSM-Firmenich. The idea, organizers told Tania, was to highlight the work of companies changing their products to be healthier and more sustainable, while providing a discussion space for companies that are not (yet) on board. In 2022, 2.5 billion adults were overweight, including 890 million living with obesity, while 390 million were underweight. The figures demonstrate a critical need for dietary change. This need was echoed at N4G, where many raised concerns about ultra-processed foods and unhealthy diets.

Most Big Food corporations were barred from participating in N4G itself due to its “principles for engagement,” which prohibit entities that don’t comply with international marketing guidelines if they produce, sell, or advertise breastmilk substitutes; have more than 60% of their portfolios derived from products high in unhealthy fats, sugars, and/or salt; or market food and beverages to children. At the private sector summit, a group of NGOs and food and beverage industry groups signed the Paris Declaration on Business & Nutrition 2030. It seeks government reform of subsidies to drive more nutritious and locally produced food; calls on investors to add nutrition to their investment portfolios; and asks businesses to reformulate their products to be healthier.

“We have seen some marginal progress towards improved nutrition outcomes from the private sector, but it’s not enough,” said ATNi Executive Director Greg S Garrett. “The Declaration calls on all actors to take action and improve markets for nutrition which in turn will help industry deliver healthier, more affordable foods for all.”

Rebuilding blocks

In Washington, D.C., as the smoke clears on the Trump administration’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it effort to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, a blueprint is emerging of what’s left of food aid — and how it will all work.

The administration has outlined its plans to shutter the agency and merge some of its functions and programs into the State Department in a congressional notification that was obtained by Devex. The State Department will create the new Office of Global Food Security to oversee food and security and humanitarian programs, including those previously managed by USAID’s Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security, and its Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, our colleagues Adva Saldinger and Elissa Miolene report.

USAID’s remaining global health programs will be managed by the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy. All remaining USAID programs will be managed by the Office of Foreign Assistance in each of the State Department’s regional bureaus, which will also absorb the remaining work of USAID’s regional bureaus.

Food for Peace, which purchases surplus food commodities from American farmers and delivers them as in-kind food aid abroad, will see changes, too. Funding associated with the program has long been appropriated to the U.S. Department of Agriculture but managed by USAID. The notification to Congress states that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as acting USAID administrator, will oversee the program “until appropriate legislation is enacted authorizing the [State] Department to assume this function.”

Read: Trump administration reveals its plans to Congress to 'abolish' USAID

Plus: What the sector would like to see to replace USAID (Pro)

Opinion: USAID can maintain its impact amid a transition to the Department of State

+ Devex Pro members can check out who was hit hardest. We examined contractors, USAID-funded nonprofits, and multilaterals. Not yet a Devex Pro member? Start your 15-day free trial now to access these articles as well as all our expert analyses, insider insights, funding data, and more.

Celebrating science

CGIAR, the world’s largest public agricultural innovation network, is finally holding its first Science Week in Nairobi next week. The inaugural event was originally set for July last year but was called off amid mass anti-tax protests in Kenya’s capital.

Plenary sessions will spotlight the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ regional nutrition strategy and the role of south-south cooperation, the role of artificial intelligence in agricultural transformation, and how to scale innovations that make food systems more climate-resilient and equitable. Expect big conversations on the future of ag research and whether global investment is keeping pace with funding needs for research and innovation.

Devex’s own Ayenat Mersie will be on the ground — come say hi or drop her a line at ayenat.mersie@devex.com.

Number munching

That’s how many people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, including nearly 4 million in IPC Phase 4 — the classification just below famine — according to a new report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. The crisis comes amid soaring food prices and as conflict escalates in the east, where rebels control two of the region’s largest cities and peace talks are faltering.

Chew on this

Kenyan government internal memo warns of “domino effect” of U.S. health cuts. [Devex]

Can climate-resilient chickens help fight poverty?  [The New York Times]

Faced with $600 million income gap, WHO to scale back on work, staff, budget. [Devex]

Update, April 2, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect the amount of the Rockefeller Foundation’s investment in regenerative school meals.