The moment and window of opportunity to tackle undernutrition is now!

Rose Ndolo, National Nutrition Coordinator, World Vision Kenya

Rose reflects on attending the Nutrition for Growth summit in London and what the recent momentum could mean for improving nutrition.

Joining the Nutrition for Growth summit in London last weekend, it was clear that right now is a significant moment for nutrition, given the high level political commitment evident. As 24 countries and 28 businesses signed up to the Summit Compact, it is clear that we have a window of opportunity to work together to improve nutrition. I am more than ever before encouraged to continue the work I do with World Vision in Kenya to serve children and mothers most vulnerable to under nutrition. I wanted to share with you some of my impressions on the recent events on nutrition.

Evidence as a key first step towards tackling under nutrition

As I sat through the launch of the 2013 Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition on Thursday June 6, I couldn’t help but think about how wonderful it is to have new and re-confirmed evidence on what needs to be done to tackle the ‘injustice of undernutrition’ as David Nabarro, Special Representative, to the UN General Secretary on Nutrition and Food Security would call it. The paper authors rightly said that this new series builds on the 2008 evidence and I must say that dissemination of the new findings must reflect that linkage in order to guide programme designers and implementers to get the action accurately. Linking this series to other national level evidence cannot be neglected.

The momentum to raise the recognition and focus for nutrition

Participation at the IF campaign side event at the Parliament building exposed me to the high level of enthusiasm that individuals and the Civil Society Organizations in general are demonstrating to not only tackle malnutrition but do so with the urgency the issue deserves. With stunting reducing at a very slow pace of just about 2% annually in Africa especially Sub-Saharan Africa where the burden of undernutrition is highest; it is totally unacceptable for society to be unmoved by a situation that is ruining human development for many generations to come.

Nutrition for Growth Summit on June 8th

This was the climax of all the events for the week seeing many world leaders including UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Vice President of Brazil Michel Temer, President of Malawi Joyce Banda Bill Gates, Kofi Annan, Justine Greening, Anjelique Kidjo, Anthony Lake, Ertharin Cousin, Graziano De Silva, Raj Shah among others come together to pledge their commitment towards scaling up nutrition at the event that was co- hosted by the UK government (DFID), Child Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the government of Brazil. A total of $23 billion was pledged to scale up nutrition interventions including World Vision's $1.2 billion pledge which I was most honoured to deliver first at the summit.

Listening to all the speakers at the event I couldn’t help but think about how these high-level efforts would be translated to practical solutions and actions at national and subnational levels in a an accountable manner. I was convinced that it is a moment for something special to end hunger and malnutrition; I reflected on our very own national nutrition action in Kenya and looked forward to its full implementation by its expiry in 2017. I hungered for a moment when all the costed lines in that plan shall be fully resourced and a moment when the targets set therein shall be achieved.

Looking back on my 10 year career in nutrition, there has not been such a momentum to tackle malnutrition, a moment when even business agrees that investing in the nutrition is the best investment. A moment when politicians acknowledge that it is the right thing to do and civil society is re-energized to tackle under nutrition as a fundamental human rights issue.

A number of factors are aligning - first, we have fresh evidence in the shape of the new Lancet series on nutrition, which shows that nutrition is responsible for 45% of child deaths under 5. Secondly we have political, financial commitments and mostly importantly we are starting to see action at both global and country levels. Working together, these items can take us to the World Health Assembly target for reducing stunting by 40% by the year 2025.

All the positive energy in the atmosphere challenged me to realize that then this is then the start of the real action when every individual, organizations and nations must rise above business as usual and take action.

Find out more about the pledges made at the Nutrition for Growth summit.