London, UK (2 February 2022) – RESULTS UK welcomes the announcement by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of funding for global nutrition programmes, after it failed to make a financial pledge for nutrition at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit in December. We thank the UK Government for committing up to £1.5 billion between 2022 and 2030 to nutrition programmes. This is a significant first step from the UK to honour the promise made at the N4G Summit to improving nutrition for women, girls, and children.

Last month, at the Nutrition for Growth (N4G) Summit, more than 300 commitments from 148 stakeholders were made, amounting to a financial contribution of over US $27 billion. At the Summit, the UK Government announced the integration of the OECD policy marker for nutrition into FCDO programmes. On top of this N4G pledge, the UK financial commitment for nutrition announced today will increase the effectiveness and impact of nutrition programmes supported by the UK.  

Disappointingly, however, the UK hasn’t renewed a previous Government commitment to reach over 50 million children, women, and adolescent girls with nutrition-relevant programmes in the next 5 years. 

The financial commitment, while welcome, marks a significant reduction in funding for nutrition programmes compared with previous commitments and with what FCDO spent for nutrition between 2013 and 2020. If maintained, this funding level effectively confirms and maintains the disproportionate cuts to nutrition spending made in 2021.

As we are soon approaching the end of the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016-2025), there is an urgent need to curb the rising rate of malnutrition worldwide, and to meet the WHO Global Nutrition Target for 2025 on maternal, infant and young child nutrition. 

We call on the UK Government to increase this commitment at the next N4G Summit in 2024, particularly as Official Development Assistance (ODA) returns to 0.7% of Gross National Income as promised by the Chancellor, and in line with the Government’s own bold agenda to end preventable deaths.

ENDS.

Notes

Tokyo Compact on Global N4G commitments:  https://nutritionforgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Tokyo-Compact-on-Global-N4G_Annex_Dec-14.pdf

For the period 2013−2020 the UK Government spent a total of £574.8 million on nutrition-specific interventions, and £2.1 billion on nutrition-sensitive interventions: https://devinit.org/blog/latest-data-uk-fcdo-nutrition-spending/

WHO Global Nutrition Target for 2025 on maternal, infant and young child nutrition: https://apps.who.int/nutrition/global-target-2025/en/

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RESULTS UK is a movement of passionate, committed, everyday people who together use their voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty. For more information please visit www.results.org.uk