3 Questions to Chibuzo Okonta, Executive Director of Action Against Hunger France

Interview with Chibuzo Okonta, Executive Director of Action Against Hunger France.

Focus 2030: Nearly 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, and malnutrition is directly or indirectly responsible for around one in two deaths among children under the age of five. According to Action Against Hunger, what are the main obstacles encountered on the ground in the fight against malnutrition? What priority efforts and essential conditions should the international community consider to achieve the ambitious goal of a malnutrition-free world by 2030?

Chibuzo Okonta, Executive Director of Action Against Hunger France : Thank you for your question. 2025 marks the start of the final stretch towards the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, government decisions are taking us further and further away from this ambition, which now seems no more than a utopian dream.

Humanity cannot solve the problem of malnutrition without tackling the root causes of hunger.

For Action Against Hunger, these causes have long been identified: conflicts, the climate crisis, socio-economic and gender inequalities. The ambition to combat malnutrition without addressing its root causes would testify to a lack of understanding of the issue, or an absence of political will.

During humanitarian crises, diplomacy based on human rights is unfortunately not a priority, as seen for example in Ukraine, Palestine or the Democratic Republic of Congo. And yet, if we are to combat hunger and malnutrition, it is essential that States promote and apply International Humanitarian Law in conflict zones, to guarantee the protection of civilians and the infrastructures essential to their survival.

With regard to the climate crisis, Action Against Hunger promotes local and peasant agriculture to combat malnutrition. These are effective practices for building people’s resilience. However, we live in a world where the economic interests of countries and multinationals take precedence, and globalized food production chains do not favor this type of agriculture, even though we know that it is a bulwark against malnutrition. On the contrary, today’s industrial food systems are responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions, contribute significantly to environmental degradation, and put great pressure on natural resources.

While countries plagued by high socio-economic and gender inequalities often struggle to finance and ensure the quality or even existence of essential services, women, children and marginalized people are doubly at risk: they live with few means to meet their needs, and the State provides little or no care. Without care, a severely malnourished child will pay the consequences for the rest of his or her life or may simply die.

The international community needs to prioritize nutrition in its development policies, because it lies at the heart of all the issues that need to be addressed to achieve the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals. We urge France to commit to putting the fight against hunger at the heart of its foreign policy and European political agenda.

Chibuzo Okonta : We are hoping for a real commitment from the nations represented, and particularly from France, the host country of the summit. We are convinced that the success of the N4G summit depends largely on the active involvement of France’s highest authorities.

Furthermore, if we want the Summit to have a real impact, it is imperative to have many countries present, including some of the richest countries, because of their greater collective responsibility and the impact of junk food on their societies, but also less wealthy countries, more severely affected by hunger.

As mentioned above, the causes of hunger are structural, and only structural responses will be relevant and sustainable. There is therefore no innovative or miracle solution. We are therefore counting on the international community to make and respect financial and political commitments that address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, while controlling practices that are harmful to nutrition. To achieve this, it is crucial to avoid closed-circle decision-making, all too often influenced by private interests and economic considerations, by involving civil society and local communities as much as possible in decision-making, so that commitments are relevant to the societies and populations most affected.

But as is so often the case, one of the biggest obstacles in the fight against malnutrition remains the lack of funding and political will.

It is astonishing to see such disinterest when even the World Bank announces that the global cost of inaction on malnutrition exceeds 41 trillion dollars over 10 years. Unfortunately, without funding, the situation is bound to get worse. Today, funding for international solidarity is declining. The decrease in French Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the uncertain future of US ODA are undermining our projects and increasing the insecurity of the people we support.

We try to make our voice heard on these issues daily, and the Nutrition for Growth Summit is a not-to-be-missed event, both for us and for the international community as a whole.

Chibuzo Okonta Civil society organizations play a central role in the fight against malnutrition. Action Against Hunger wishes to reaffirm that the short-term interests of private stakeholders cannot be considered as legitimate as the interests of peoples and the enforcement of their most fundamental rights, such as food, a favorable environment and access to water.

To avoid such a counter-productive scenario, it is essential to include civil societies in all their diversity, in particular those in the South most affected by malnutrition. That said, over the last twenty years or so, there has been a shift in the way international dialogues are conducted, particularly on issues relating to food and nutrition. International dialogues have a strong private-sector presence and influence. Often seen as a source of change, the private sector is invited to make commitments in favor of nutrition, just like governments.

The experience of several decades of international summits on food systems shows us that there is an asymmetry of power between representatives of civil society, governments and multinationals, particularly agribusinesses, always in favor of the latter.

However, the space given to the private commercial sector at international summits such as N4G, on the contrary, guarantees it a favorable regulatory environment, wiping out any necessary evolution.

Although previous editions of N4G had Principles of Engagement, they didn’t truly guard against conflicts of interest between the private commercial sector and human rights, notably the right to adequate and sufficient food.

Faced with this situation, and to ensure that the means and efforts deployed to combat undernutrition are not in vain, it is urgent that the private sector’s involvement in the fight against undernutrition be conditional on compliance with rules that delimit its influence and refocus its action in favor of common interests and the Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, the N4G Paris seems to be moving in the right direction, but we will have to wait for it to take place before expressing our views.

NB : The opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the positions of Focus 2030.