By Shawn Baker, Chief Program Officer |
All eyes are on Paris as the world prepares to open the 2024 Olympic Games, a symbol of health, strength, and human potential. France is also preparing to host another global moment: The Nutrition for Growth Summit. This global pledging moment, first held following the 2012 London Olympics, brings together world leaders in governments, philanthropy, businesses and academia, to accelerate progress in the fight against malnutrition.
I vividly recall the 2017 nutrition pledging moment when Mrs. Graça Machel took the stage and kicked off the event by reminding the audience, that, as a mother and a grandmother, she knows “You can never break a promise to a child …” This year I had the great pleasure of visiting Mrs. Machel’s homeland, Mozambique, and seeing first-hand the transformational power of good nutrition, watching Agentes Polivalentes de Saúde – Community Health Workers – deliver vitamin A, counsel families on children’s diets, and screen children for wasting and provide treatment for those children who need it.
Children’s lives are at stake
Malnutrition drives 45% of child deaths and for those children who survive malnutrition their cognitive and physical development is compromised, locking them and their families into a brutal cycle of poverty and exclusion. What I observed in Mozambique and in many of the countries where Helen Keller works illustrates the progress that has been made and what is possible. But the past few years have also been riddled with setbacks. Climate crises, conflict, rising costs of food, and the COVID-19 pandemic are imperiling gains and delaying progress in meeting the world’s nutrition promises to children. When I ask families what the biggest challenge they face in nourishing their children is, the top message is always the cost of nutritious food.
This next Nutrition for Growth Summit is a critical opportunity for the world to recommit to the global goal of ending malnutrition. Delivering on this promise to children and their families will require concerted effort from governments, philanthropies, businesses, and nongovernmental organizations like Helen Keller Intl. With action, we can have a real impact: following a 2022 increase in funding for malnutrition treatment, an additional 2 million children received life-saving services. This Summit comes at a critical juncture – we can either accept backsliding or slowing of progress, or we can catalyze efforts and accelerate action on the promises of good nutrition.
The path to Nutrition for Growth is filled with opportunity
There are many opportunities over the next year to advocate for increased nutrition funding and better nutrition policies. Our partners at Kirk Humanitarian announced the first Nutrition for Growth 2025 commitment in May to provide $125 million to increase access to prenatal vitamins over the next five years. Global leaders will convene at the United Nations General Assembly in September where Helen Keller and partners are ensuring nutrition is on the agenda.
Perhaps one of the most important moments will be the Scaling Up Nutrition Global Gathering hosted in Kigali, Rwanda in November. Nearly 1,000 representatives from governments, communities, businesses, and nutrition experts from more than 66 countries will participate. Helen Keller is serving on the program advisory group to shape priorities and support participation from several countries we work in to elevate the voices of our local partners. This will be a space where government and community representatives can work together to shape commitments for the Nutrition for Growth Summit that will deliver lasting change for families and communities most vulnerable to malnutrition.
Helen Keller is committed to building sound nutrition for families globally
At Helen Keller, we know what works to prevent and treat malnutrition. Each year, we reach millions of women and children with simple, cost-effective solutions to address malnutrition, such as prenatal vitamins, breastfeeding support, vitamin A, improving children’s diets with nutritious foods, and ensuring all children are screened for wasting and treated with therapeutic foods if they need them.
It is this expertise that has led Helen Keller to play a critical role in the 2025 Nutrition for Growth Summit. In addition to Helen Keller’s role at the Global Gathering, I am personally pleased to chair an independent expert group to contribute to the planning of the Summit. Our objectives are two-fold: building on our expertise, we will identify the essential actions needed to improve nutrition and champion nutrition with decision-makers that must deliver nutrition commitments at next year’s Summit.
With Helen Keller Europe, we are working with partners to support the government of France as they shape their plans and priorities for the Summit. In the US, we are advocating with the US government to building on their 2021 commitment of $11 billion over three years to support critical investments to combat global hunger and malnutrition. Previously, the governments of 17 countries where Helen Keller operates in Africa and Asia made commitments, and we intend to support advocacy this year with governments in these regions as well.
No single country, organization, or community can shoulder the burden of malnutrition alone—it will take all of us to end global malnutrition once and for all. The 2025 Nutrition for Growth Summit is one milestone that will help us get there.
