The WHO is accelerating work on nutrition goals with new commitments

COVID-19 and climate change have exacerbated malnutrition in all its forms and threatened the sustainability and resilience of food systems around the world. At the Summit on Nutrition for Growth in Tokyo from 7 to 8 December 2021, the World Health Organization announced six new commitments to accelerate progress on the 2025 nutrition targets, which are even further off course during the pandemic. That includes:

• Expand initiatives to prevent and manage overweight and obesity;
• Strengthen activities to create a food environment that promotes safe and healthy eating;
• Supporting countries in tackling acute malnutrition;
• Accelerate the action to reduce anemia;
• Increase quality promotion and support of breastfeeding; and
• Strengthen nutrition data systems, data usage and capacity.

Today, one third of all people worldwide are affected by at least one form of malnutrition. More than 40% of all men and women (2.2 billion people) are now overweight or obese. While an unhealthy diet is associated with at least 8 million deaths a year.

“Malnutrition in all its forms is one of the world’s leading causes of death and disease,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “WHO is committed to supporting all countries to progressively expand access to basic food services as part of their journey towards universal health coverage and strengthening sustainable food systems to support a healthy diet for all people, everywhere.”

Despite incremental improvements in all forms of malnutrition over the past decade, this progress has declined with rising rates of inequality, climate crisis, conflict, and global health insecurity.

Multiple burdens of malnutrition, such as developmental delay, loss, micronutrient deficiencies, obesity, and non-communicable diet-related diseases, are increasingly coexisting within the same community, household, and even within the same person. With current trends predicting that one in two people will be malnourished by 2025, it is estimated that about 40 million children will suffer from obesity or overweight in the next decade.

In marginalized communities, child malnutrition and food insecurity are on the rise. Last year, 149 million children had stunted growth due to poor nutrition, lack of access to clean water and health services, and other accessibility issues. Among forty-five percent of children under the age of 5 who die, malnutrition was the root cause of death.

While there are positive signs of progress, such as the world on track to achieve the global goal of increasing exclusive breastfeeding by 2025, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a nutritional crisis. This has particularly affected women and children and has led to unprecedented challenges and diversion of resources from global food systems, including health, nutrition, social protection and humanitarian aid infrastructure.

“Today, less than 1% of global development aid is focused on nutrition,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety. “Accelerated action is needed to end unhealthy diets and malnutrition, and the new WHO commitments at the Growth Nutrition Summit reflect this. The Growth Nutrition Summit is a huge opportunity to accelerate action during the Decade of Nutrition Action 2016-2025. ”

The WHO continues to work in three important areas focused on Nutrition for Growth (health, food and resilience) by strengthening normative guidelines and providing support to countries in their use; monitoring and ensuring access to nutrition data; supporting governments and decision-makers to integrate food and nutrition interventions into national universal health coverage plans, multisectoral systems and fiscal policies; and constant work in emergency situations.