Good nutrition is not only important in itself, it also helps to fight disease, support learning, boost incomes and foster peace. Yet the world is way off-track when it comes to achieving the 2025 World Health Assembly global nutrition targets and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets.
While malnutrition is a worldwide challenge, Global South countries are most affected by this scourge. As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, along with certain other international human rights treaties, the UK has wide-ranging extraterritorial obligations to work towards the realisation of social and economic rights in the Global South. These obligations include, but go well beyond, action on official development assistance (ODA).
Inadequate financing for nutrition is hurting the most vulnerable, including women and girls, the most. More and better ODA is necessary to end global malnutrition. But this alone is not enough. Debt justice is also essential. Debt justice requires all loans to be: transparent, lawful, used for a legitimate purpose, governed by an independent accountability framework, and not harmful to countries’ abilities to achieve the SDGs and realise human rights. Loans that do not meet these criteria must be cancelled.
It is time for the UK to demonstrate genuine leadership on both ODA and debt justice. Not only is this the morally right thing to do, it will help the UK to rebuild its relationships with the Global South, and contribute to making the world more secure for everyone.