Geneva, June 19, 2018 – A new report calls for governments and private industry to join forces to tackle global malnutrition, saying that achievement of the nutrition-related UN Sustainable Development Goals requires leveraging the clout of companies, financiers and shareholders, working alongside governments and NGOs.
The report comes from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the USCIB Foundation – the educational arm of the United States Council for International Business. It was prepared in follow-up to a roundtable of experts in global health policy held last October in New York.
“The future of food is one of the most critical economic and human development challenges of our time, and new solutions are urgently needed to tackle all forms of malnutrition,” said USCIB Foundation President Peter Robinson, who also serves as president and CEO of USCIB. “It cannot be tackled by government or business acting alone. Business is open to doing more and better but we need stronger dialogue and partnerships with governments, NGOs and other public-sector agencies to do that.”
The report was launched today in Geneva alongside key World Health Organization meetings aimed at promoting adolescent nutrition.
“Nations cannot achieve the SDGs without engaging the private sector,” said GAIN Executive Director Lawrence Haddad. “But to ensure that engagement is positive, governments need to be proactive, businesses need to be responsible and incentivized. Dialogue, transparency and impact assessment need to pervade their alliances to ensure they have positive effects and no negative effects on the nutrition status of all, especially those most vulnerable.”
Haddad and Robinson presented a draft set of Guiding Principles of Engagement developed by a group of 20 public-sector and 20 private-sector representatives at the October roundtable. These representatives challenged themselves on how best to get governments and industry to work together to build pro-nutrition food and beverage markets, in order to combat malnutrition and help achieve the SDGs.
Global food and agriculture constitute a $7.8 trillion (U.S.) industry, employing up to 40 percent of the working population in most countries. The report calls for much more openness and engagement in removing obstacles to foster this cooperation with greater focus on doing good together.
The report, “No More Missed Opportunities: Advancing Public-Private Partnerships to Achieve the Global Nutrition Goals,” was prepared with Wilton Park, a leading host of critical development dialogues.
About GAIN:
The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) was launched at the UN in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Working with partners, GAIN aims at making healthier food choices more affordable, more available, and more desirable. GAIN’s purpose is to improve nutrition outcomes by improving the consumption of nutritious and safe food for all people, especially the most vulnerable. For more information, visit: www.gainhealth.org
About The USCIB Foundation:
The USCIB Foundation is the educational and research arm of the United States Council for International Business. Its purpose is to promote the benefits of a free-market economy and the role of the private sector as an engine for economic growth and social development globally. The Foundation advances this mission primarily through its work in conducting information-based research to educate and engage policy makers and the public to develop sensible regulatory policies based on data that will strengthen trade, investment, innovation and sustainability through environmental management. More at www.theuscibfoundation.org.
Contacts:
Nathalie Perroud, GAIN
nperroud@gainhealth.org, +41 22 749 18 45
Jonathan Huneke, USCIB
jhuneke@uscib.org, +1 212 703 5043
