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  • Publication | 2024

Investment Framework for Nutrition 2024

Global Food and Nutrition Security

As we approach the 2025 Paris Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G), investing to address global nutrition challenges has become more critical than ever. Investment Framework for Nutrition 2024 broadens the focus of the 2017 Investment Framework for Nutrition to include low birthweight and obesity, and it adds policy considerations, operational guidance for country-level implementation, and gender and climate change perspectives.

Key Findings:

  • Despite a 44% decrease in child stunting rates between 1990 and 2022, 148 million children worldwide are still stunted, and wasting and low birthweight remain high.
  • An additional $128 billion is required to scale up evidence-based nutrition interventions to 90% coverage from 2025-2034, with $98 billion needed for low- and lower-middle-income countries.
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  • The full scale-up of interventions to address undernutrition is estimated to generate $2.4 trillion in economic benefits, with a benefit–cost ratio of 23. For every $1 invested in addressing undernutrition, a return of $23 is expected. These economic benefits far outweigh the costs of inaction, which run around $41 trillion over 10 years, with $21 trillion in economic productivity losses because of undernutrition and an estimated $20 trillion worth of economic and social costs because of overweight and obesity. Climate change, undernutrition, and obesity are interconnected, and addressing these issues can have co-benefits for human and planetary health.

Recommendations:

  • Increase investments in reducing undernutrition and obesity, with a focus on low- and lower-middle-income countries.
  • Implement policies to influence consumer preferences, such as taxes on unhealthy foods, front-of-package labeling, and marketing regulations.
  • Explore innovative financing sources, including private sector investments and climate funds, to support nutrition initiatives.
  • Design policies to address the complex nexus of climate change, undernutrition, and obesity, and prioritize child-responsive investments.
  • Support women's empowerment and address their unique vulnerabilities to climate change.