Saturday April 05, 2025
Paris, France

Governments and private donors alike were mobilized at the summit against malnutrition held in Paris on Thursday and Friday, but this will not be enough in the face of a downturn in international aid, particularly from the USA, stressed organizers and participants.

“Our collective action can make the difference between stagnation and progress, between vulnerability and resilience”, summed up UN Under-Secretary-General Afshan Khan, closing the ‘Nutrition for Growth’ meeting.

“But we cannot ignore the fact that we are closing this summit at a time of great financial challenge: recent aid cuts are estimated at 44% by (the coalition of experts) +Standing together for nutrition+, and despite the strong commitments (gathered in Paris, Editor’s note), the impacts of these longer-term cuts will go beyond emergency programs, and affect essential health services, school feeding programs, agriculture, water sanitation…”

The 2025 edition of this meeting, traditionally held every four years in the host city of the Olympic Games, was the first major gathering devoted to development since Donald Trump announced the virtual dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It comes at a time when official development assistance has already been declining in recent years in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, the UK… against a backdrop of economic difficulties or increased military spending.

– Dignity and stability –

Between hunger, undernutrition, but also overweight and diseases linked to ultra-processed food, more than 2.8 billion people suffer from malnutrition, in the South as in the North, according to the FAO.

According to the organizers, 27.55 billion dollars in financial commitments over four years were collected during these two days, and will be monitored by the “Global nutrition report” platform, managed by the American NGO Path.

According to Brieuc Pont, Secretary General of the French edition of the summit, this is more than the sum pledged at the previous Nutrition Summit in Tokyo, half of which came from the United States.

This sum comes from governments, development banks and American philanthropic organizations (which have pledged over 2 billion dollars in donations). Among the latter, the Bezos family foundation has pledged up to $500 million to Unicef, which, without mentioning Washington by name, warned on Wednesday of the vital risk to millions of children as a result of drastic aid cuts.

The World Bank estimates the need to eradicate malnutrition at $13 billion a year.

This meeting “will remain a crucial milestone in the fight against malnutrition”, said Marjeta Jager, Deputy Director General for International Cooperation at the European Commission. “Nutrition is dignity, and stability”.

– In Los Angeles in 2028? –

She referred to a European commitment (collective and member states) of 6.5 billion euros, “demonstrating the leading role” of Europe, “a stable and reliable partner”.

The French Minister for International Partnerships, Thani Mohamed Soilihi, who chaired the event, noted the presence of 106 States, alongside NGOs, youth movements, development banks…

“Nutrition permeates all subjects, it is a central lever of development”, and ‘one of the most profitable’, since a dollar invested in nutrition generates 23 dollars of wealth, he stressed.

France, for its part, estimates that it will devote “more than 750 million euros” to nutrition over the next five years.

But for Action Against Hunger (ACF), which “hails an unprecedented political mobilization”, “this momentum has not translated into financial commitments commensurate with the challenges”. On the French side in particular, this is “a huge disappointment”, whereas civil society had been calling for double the amount, i.e. a return to the 2020 level, reacted the NGO.

The United States was by far the biggest contributor to global humanitarian aid, with more than $64 billion in 2024, or 42% of the world total.

Will the country, which will host the Games in 2028 (Los Angeles), host the next nutrition summit? “We hope so, and we are in constant dialogue with the United States to keep the movement going,” said Mr. Mohamed Soilihi.

Humaniterre with AFP