Three questions to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization

Interview with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization

Focus 2030 : The world is off track in meeting the global nutrition goals set for 2025 under the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition, a global initiative led by the WHO and FAO to address nutrition challenges. According to the WHO, what are the biggest barriers to fighting malnutrition?

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. : The biggest barriers to fighting malnutrition include conflict, climate change, poverty, gender discrimination, food insecurity and rising food prices. In 2023, an estimated 1 in 11 people worldwide, or 733 million, faced hunger due to conflicts and global economic challenges. This number rose to 1 in 5 in Africa. At the same time, the availability of cheap and highly processed foods, high in fat, sugar and salts combined with declining physical activity is fueling a growing obesity epidemic.

In fragile and conflict-affected areas, where populations face an acute or chronic hunger crisis, we see high rates of childhood stunting and wasting. This is driven by a lack of adequate nutrition during the first 1.000 days from conception to two years of age. A lack of breastfeeding, which delivers critical antibodies and nutrition to infants during the first months of life, often fuels this. Exclusive breastfeeding rates globally have risen from 37% in 2012 to 48% in 2022. But little progress has been made in reducing low birth weight, which remains stagnant at nearly 15%. A lack of access to iron-rich foods has also contributed to a rise in anaemia among women, reaching 30% in 2019.

In many low- and middle-income countries, we now see a double burden of malnutrition, with both undernutrition and rising overweight and obesity rates.

This is largely driven by urbanization, globalization and income growth coupled with a shift in the quality and quantity of diets during recent decades. Limited access to healthy and affordable food options in these environments contributes to an over-reliance on processed foods, especially among young or underserved populations. This can lead to micronutrient deficiencies and develop into a range of noncommunicable diseases over people’s lives, such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

The Global Nutrition Targets have been instrumental in the fight against malnutrition. While strong progress has been made, WHO has proposed extending the 2025 targets to 2030. For indicators such as stunting, anaemia, low birth weight and wasting, continued action is needed to achieve meaningful progress. For targets nearing achievement, such as exclusive breastfeeding and childhood overweight, efforts should focus on accelerating progress with a goal of increasing exclusive breastfeeding rates during the first 6 months of life to 60% and reducing childhood overweight to below 5%.

Focus 2030 : How does the WHO work to overcome these barriers and support the fight against malnutrition? Which solutions should be prioritized?

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus :  As the leading scientific and normative agency on global public health, WHO works with technical experts to develop guidelines, frameworks and tools that support countries to overcome these barriers.

Prioritized solutions include guidance on nutrition labelling that clearly indicates the nutritional content of food. Given the transition towards prepackaged food, labelling is not only a communication tool but also a valuable marketing asset to influence decision-making. WHO has also prioritized guidance on fiscal policies to promote healthy diets. This includes policies that discourage the consumption of unhealthy foods – such as a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages – and encourage consuming healthier foods through subsidies and other means. The development, implementation, monitoring and enforcement of these policies should be government-led with a whole-of-society approach.

In addition, WHO collaborates with other UN agencies to assist countries in fighting malnutrition.

Key initiatives include the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting, the Anaemia Action Alliance, the Acceleration Plan to Stop Obesity and the Global Breastfeeding Collective.

Together, these initiatives convene a diverse group of stakeholders to address a specific area of overweight or undernutrition, fostering multisectoral action and engaging civil society organizations to drive meaningful progress.

All forms of malnutrition are preventable. To tackle malnutrition at its root, children and their families must have access to safe and nutritious diets, essential health services and positive nutrition practices.

Ending malnutrition requires a multisectoral approach, integrating nutrition into food, health, and social protection systems.

The latter includes social safety nets such as cash and food transfer programs that break the vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition that persists in many parts of the world.

Focus 2030 : On March 27-28, 2025, France will host the next N4G Summit, presenting a crucial opportunity to advance the global fight against malnutrition. What are the WHO’s expectations for this event, and what commitments does your organization intend to put forward?

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus :  WHO’s expectations for the Nutrition for Growth Summit are to hear bold and decisive political and financial commitments to fight malnutrition. WHO has been actively working with the Government of France to prepare for the Summit, and anticipates that these commitments will be essential to accelerate progress towards the extended Global Nutrition Targets and related SDGs by 2030.

Historically, the Nutrition for Growth Summits have been instrumental to advance global efforts in combatting malnutrition. The 2021 Tokyo Summit alone resulted in 396 new nutrition commitments from 181 stakeholders across 78 countries, with over US $27 billion pledged by donor governments and organizations for nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive programs.

This upcoming summit presents a critical opportunity to reinforce collaboration, scale up proven interventions, and secure the financial and political backing needed to fight malnutrition in all its forms.

The 2024 Investment Framework for Nutrition by the World Bank, identifies nutrition as one of the strongest investments, with every dollar spent on early interventions yielding a US $23 dollar return. WHO calls on all stakeholders to invest in nutrition as a matter of top priority and looks forward to announcing its own commitments at the time of the N4G summit in France.

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