The global food and nutrition crisis – a multi-system failure driven by the climate crisis, fragile food systems, high food prices, a crippled COVID-19 recovery, debt distress and the war in Ukraine – follows us into 2023. One of its grave impacts is the rising levels of child malnutrition that is costing lives and puts at risk the future health and livelihoods of the children who survive and the potential of their communities and nations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The maker and marker of development, good nutrition is vital for physical growth and cognitive development in early life that gives rise to healthy and productive members of society. Since December 2022, an estimated two million children in the Horn of Africa are in urgent need of treatment for acute malnutrition.
In the final weeks of her tenure as Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Gerda Verburg appeals for a nutrition-sensitive response to the global food and nutrition crisis, shares her expectations at COP28 and opportunities to position nutrition in 2023. Country-based solutions, that are locally owned and globally supported, have a critical role to play in tackling this polycrisis.
Positioning nutrition as a “no-regrets” investment
“The most important way to capture attention for nutrition is to tell the story of nutrition – what good nutrition means to people and how it maintains or regains their dignity and prosperity,” says Gerda. The world is not built to have one part of the world always dependent on another. By nature, people want to deal with their own solutions, to take care of their family and send their children to school.
Nutrition is a “strange animal” with many angles – food systems, health, water and hygiene, social protection – that make it impossible to focus solely on nutrition. To respond accordingly, the 65 countries that make up the SUN Movement have worked to envelop nutrition within a multi-sectoral combined agenda, for example, a national development plan that brings to the table the ministers of social affairs, agriculture, education, health, economic development and beyond.
The goal, as Gerda sees it, is “if one minister is ready to invest in the portfolio of another minister or if nutrition is well represented in a diverse portfolio ensuring that it is a joint responsibility, then miracles will happen.” It is crucial that nutrition is recognised by senior government officials as “an investment in society, in people’s capacity and a country’s development.” These “real leaders of nutrition” are already elevating this critical issue in governments across African, Asian and Latin American countries.
Secure the future – invest in nutrition.
Although the global food and nutrition crisis is only the latest in a series of climate and man-made emergencies felt across the globe, countries have shown great resilience and a solutions-oriented approach. Gerda points to the reintroduction of indigenous nutritious alternatives to replace wheat-based foods. Working with chefs, countries are reinventing traditional foods that have been labelled as poor people’s food and making them enticing again. To tackle the projected high levels of malnutrition in 2023, Gerda urges countries to “look for the opportunity in the multiple crises and work together to improve that opportunity”, not only for the benefit of food and nutrition but also for the Sustainable Development Goals more broadly – how can we transform whole supply chains from food production until consumption? How can we make them nutritious and climate-smart at the same time?
National and local action to overcome overlapping challenges
Gerda hopes for an inclusive agenda at COP28. “My strong wish is that we not only focus on creating a new proposition but think through how to ensure initiatives like I-CAN and the Koronivia Working Group are reflected in the final document and in systems of climate financing,” advised Gerda. These inclusive global policies, that translate to combined and smart country-level programming, guarantee that we tackle malnutrition, climate change and fragile food systems in a concerted way. Gerda shared an example of a project by the SUN Movement, FAO and Islamic Development Bank that trains development bank personnel to assist countries with nutrition and climate-sensitive programming.
Hopeful in 2023
Gerda presented a last request to global players: openness to innovative solutions from the country and regional level. “Learn to listen instead of telling developing countries what and how they should develop their country,” urged Gerda, as countries must be the owners of their own solutions. “If you need help, then supporters, institutions and global funders should be ready to support you. But you, yourself, your country needs to be the owner of the direction of your future.”
Prior to her appointment at the SUN Movement, she served as Chair of the Agenda Council for Food and Nutrition of the World Economic Forum (WEF), 2014; was elected as Chair of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), 2013, and served as Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations Rome-based agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) from 2011.
Ms. Verburg was elected as Chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD 17) in 2008, following her appointment the previous year as Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality of the Netherlands.
