Thank you for contacting me about UK action to support nutrition worldwide.
Adequate food security and nutrition are basic human needs. It is a deeply regrettable fact that for so many on our planet, these needs remain unmet – particularly in conflict and drought-affected regions of Africa, where millions live in conditions of acute food insecurity and even famine.
The UK has a strong track record on this issue and hosted the first Nutrition for Growth (NG4) Summit in 2013. Since 2015, we have supported over 55 million women, girls and children to access better nutrition worldwide and since 2021, HM Government (HMG) has applied the OEDC DAC marker on nutrition across all UK aid spending. I know that many organisations, including the International Coalition for Advocacy on Nutrition, had been calling for this.
In addition, the FCDO has published its Ending Preventable Deaths Action Paper, setting out how it will work to address barriers to protecting the lives of mothers, babies and children. Galvanising action to end malnutrition in all of its forms is identified as a key action in this paper. In line with this, I welcome that the FCDO has announced a £1.5 billion spending package to tackle global malnutrition from 2022-2030. This pledge is the UK’s third N4G commitment and supplements the policy commitments made at the N4G Summit in December 2021.
More recently, the UK announced a £2 million contribution to the Nutrition Match Fund which, coupled with the additional funds it has leveraged, will treat an estimated 40,000 severely wasted children in 2022. Many more children will be reached by the UK's wider partnership with UNICEF, which aims to strengthen systems for preventing and treating child wasting in nine African and Asian countries, and other programmes, which are supporting the rollout of lifesaving nutrition services, including treatment for acute malnutrition.
The UK’s efforts to tackle malnutrition form a fundamental part of HMG’s commitment to ending preventable deaths. With global hunger at alarming levels, government investment over the coming years will secure better nutrition for millions of the world’s most vulnerable.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.