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Published 9 January 2025 in News
| The next edition of the Nutrition for Growth Summit, organized by France on March 27 and 28, 2025 in Paris, represents a unique opportunity to engage the international community in a more effective fight against malnutrition. Ahead of this international summit, Focus 2030 is dedicating a special edition to the global challenges of (mal)nutrition, highlighting the views and expectations of organizations, personalities and experts working in the field of nutrition. |
Focus 2030 : France will host the Nutrition for Growth Summit on March 27-28, 2025, to mobilize the international community and address the structural causes of malnutrition. What will be the priorities of the 2025 N4G Summit? How could this initiative mark the turning point in the fight against malnutrition? From your perspective, what would constitute a successful summit?
Brieuc Pont, N4G Special Envoy : We want the N4G Paris Summit to be a turning point in nutrition, a summit that brings about a paradigm shift. The goal is to better integrate nutrition policies into the development agenda, while also addressing all forms of malnutrition, including overweight and obesity.
Our goal is to make nutrition a universal issue because it is a plague that spares no one.
And developed countries are equally affected. Finally, we place great importance on monitoring the commitments made in Paris. It is no longer about meeting once every four years to make financial commitments, but about ensuring that our collective efforts lead to the achievement of the SDGs and help prepare the post-2030 period.
To this end, the Summit will be structured around open dialogue, enabling conceptual, political, and financial progress through strong, collective, and constructive engagement from governments, development banks, philanthropic foundations, the research community, NGOs, and the private sector.
Socio-economic, gender, and health access inequalities, weak food and education systems, climate disasters, health shocks, and conflicts are not only the main causes of malnutrition but also aggravating factors. They can also create a vicious cycle that exacerbates the effects of malnutrition itself.
To address this, the Summit intends to mobilize and encourage commitments by developing a balanced, multisectoral approach to nutrition at the heart of these major challenges.
N4G Paris aims to highlight all forms of malnutrition. While primarily affecting developing countries, donor countries are also deeply burdened by this issue: obesity and non-communicable diseases related to malnutrition have never been more prevalent. Moreover, we are facing the rise of another aspect of this burden: malnutrition in the elderly. In aging societies, the nutrition of our seniors is a critical dimension of healthy aging.
While the financial commitments secured during this edition will undoubtedly be an important aspect of its success, its outcome will be determined by the quality of these commitments and their alignment with the needs of populations.
Success will also depend on political mobilization to renew international nutrition objectives in order to meet the 2030 deadline and, beyond that, to eradicate malnutrition in all its forms, across all continents. Finally, the summit will be successful if it can maintain momentum beyond March 28 and sustain it until the next edition.
Focus 2030 : Today, three billion people still cannot afford a healthy diet, and globally nearly one in three children under five suffers from malnutrition. What are the main barriers countries face? In your opinion, what solutions should be scaled up to make a real difference and deserve the mobilization of financial and political commitments from stakeholders at the Summit?
Brieuc Pont : The main obstacles to food security and the fight against malnutrition are multifaceted and interdependent.
At the economic and social levels, poverty, gender inequalities, the high cost of healthy and nutritious foods, and food inflation limit access to adequate nutrition for populations. Armed conflicts disrupt supply chains and restrict humanitarian access to vulnerable populations. Climate change, such as droughts and floods, weakens agricultural systems, while land degradation and water stress reduce agricultural productivity. Inefficient food systems, characterized by post-harvest losses, low crop diversification, as well as ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt, and fat, worsen food insecurity. Finally, limited access to health and nutrition services, lack of awareness, and weak public policies—especially the absence of multisectoral coordination and dependence on food imports—pose challenges to the fight against malnutrition.
To meet this challenge, we need to strengthen the mainstreaming of nutrition into all public policies.
This means implementing actions across different sectors in parallel. In the health sector, social protection nets such as cash transfers and school feeding programs—provided they offer balanced and healthy meals—should be put in place. The screening and treatment of child malnutrition, with support for micronutrient supplementation campaigns and the promotion of breastfeeding, are also solutions to be prioritized. In the agricultural sector, it is crucial to place nutrition at the heart of policies to strengthen food systems. Other areas that require investment include education, gender equality, hygiene and sanitation, and governance.
Focus 2030 : As host of the Summit, how does France intend to distinguish itself from previous editions and, more generally, from other countries in its response to the challenges of malnutrition? The N4G Summit has become a key moment in the international community’s political and financial mobilization to fight malnutrition. How much does France allocate to this cause? Has a global target been set ?
Brieuc Pont : The N4G Summits are just the tip of the iceberg in the fight against malnutrition. Our aim is to create continuity between summits, to ensure that collective efforts are sustained between them. The previous host country of the N4G Summit, Japan, and the next, the United States, are fully committed to this goal.
France, for its part, whether in the fields of health, education, water/sanitation, or agriculture champions a multisectoral and integrated approach to nutrition. Our country is particularly focused on combating malnutrition in a cross-cutting way, especially through healthy and diversified diets. Our international efforts prioritize undernutrition and the critical "1,000 days" period (from conception to two years of age), which is crucial for children’s physical and cognitive development.
Alongside support for humanitarian actions, France aims for a preventive and long-term approach to malnutrition. In this regard, healthy diets and sustainable food systems, particularly those based on agroecological practices, are a key focus.
France is taking concrete action in this area. At the last N4G Summit in Tokyo, it committed to dedicating 50% of its food aid to nutrition. From 2020 to 2023, 354 million euros were allocated to nutrition, equating to nearly 90 million euros per year. For the upcoming Summit, France intends to further increase its political and financial contribution to nutrition.
NB : The opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the positions of Focus 2030.
