No More Missed Opportunities. Advancing Public-Private Partnerships to Achieve the Global Nutrition Goals

A new report calls for governments and companies to join forces to tackle global malnutrition, saying that achievement of the nutrition-related UN Sustainable Development Goals requires leveraging the resources of firms, financiers and shareholders, to work with civil society stakeholders to support the nutrition priorities of governments.

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 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 is also 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.”

“Nations cannot achieve the SDGs without engaging the private sector. But to ensure that engagement is positive, governments need to be proactive, businesses need to be responsible and incentivised”

Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director of GAIN and member of the SUN Movement Executive Committe

Global food and agriculture constitute a USD 7.8 trillion industry, employing up to 40 per cent of the working population in most countries. We have a responsibility to understand how to mobilize those significant assets to improve nutrition. A country’s ability to end all forms of malnutrition and achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 can be enhanced when government and industry work together to build pro-nutrition food and beverage markets. The question is how.

Dialogue between government and business is a key first step. In October 2017, we were delighted to host the first in a series of dialogues – “No More Missed Opportunities: Advancing Public Private Partnerships to Achieve the Global Nutrition Goals” – in partnership with Wilton Park, a long-established host of critical development dialogues.

More than 40 representatives from governments, the food and beverage industry, UN agencies, and nonprofit organizations came together for “No More Missed Opportunities: Advancing Public-Private Partnerships to Achieve the Global Nutrition Goals,” in New York City on October 2 and 3, 2017. The dialogue addressed four major themes, (1) the knowledge revolution; (2) the pace of innovation; (3) incentives for public-private partnership, and (4) platforms for action. Participants concluded that guidelines for engagement are needed to inspire and shape a new generation of public-private alliances fit for the purpose of achieving the nutrition goals.

Download the report here: English