Investing in Nutrition is Key to Africa's Development | Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD)

A side event was held at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development which focused on advocating for increased investment in nutrition in order to end all forms of malnutrition. This event was held by the African Union Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

After evaluating the Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) study, these organizations were able to determine that African countries are losing the equivalent of between 1.9% to 16.5% of their Gross Domestic Products annually because of child malnutrition. Africa has become the only region in the world where the number of stunted children has increased over the past twenty years. Because of these increasing numbers, there is an urgent need for increasing resources to improve nutrition and social development.

The theme of this event was "harnessing Innovating Financing for Nutrition in Africa," and it called for representatives from the ECA, WFP, UNICEF, and the Government of Mali to discuss the need for investment in nutrition in Africa. The panelists also called for increasing global efforts to tackle nutrition, and not simply focus on Africa.

To read more on the event, please click here.