News story: UK hosts high-level meeting on global nutrition and growth
Updated: Updated N4G Compact (English) to relect new signatories
The UK government, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and the Government of Brazil will co-host Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science on 8 June to bring together business leaders, scientists, governments and civil society to make the political and financial commitments needed to prevent undernutrition, enabling people and nations to prosper.
Latest updates
- News story: World leaders sign global agreement to help beat hunger and malnutrition
- Live coverage: Get the latest updates from the event on Storify
- Speech: Prime Minister – “There are still 1 billion people going hungry”
- Find out how the UK is working to reduce hunger and undernutrition
The event follows on from the UK-Brazil Hunger Summit held in London last summer, which highlighted the devastating consequences of undernutrition on children.
We will also work with a range of companies to assess the progress and expand the reach of the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.
Why nutrition, why now?
Undernutrition is the largest single contributor to child mortality worldwide, underlying one third of deaths amongst children under five. It is also responsible for the loss of billions of dollars in productivity, in effect stunting not only citizens, but also the competitiveness and economic growth of high-burden countries.
Globally, nearly one in four children under age 5 (165 million or 26% as of 2011) are stunted. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are home to three quarters of the world’s stunted children. Fourteen countries are home to 80% of the global burden of stunting – India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, DRC, Philippines, Tanzania, Egypt, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan
Under nutrition affects mothers at conception, the health of the baby in utero, and the development of children through their early years. Failure to obtain the right nutrition at the right time seriously reduces the life chance of the next generation and prevents them, their communities, and their countries from achieving their full potential.
Investing in nutrition now will not only save more lives in the short-term but will set developing countries on a strong, independent economic growth trajectory.