Through a New Nutrition Road Map, GFF commits 30 percent of its financing for nutrition investments in partner countries and to help countries save up to one million lives by 2025 

December 9, 2021 WASHINGTON D.C. – This week at the Nutrition for Growth Summit hosted by Japan, the Global Financing Facility launched a Nutrition Road Map to help tackle the nutrition crisis in many of the world’s poorest countries and save 1 million lives through nutrition investments. The Road Map can help deliver on the nutrition agenda and support countries to address the significant impact that COVID-19 has had on essential health services and food systems.  

Through the Nutrition Road Map, with 30% of its financing committed to nutrition investments the GFF will help countries to protect against losses by: 

  1. Catalyzing more and better financing for the integration of nutrition into the full continuum of maternal and child health services 
  2. Building human resource capacity at the community and health facility levels to effectively deliver high quality nutrition services 
  3. Strengthening supply chains to ensure the integration and delivery of nutrition commodities, such as micronutrient supplements and ready-to-use therapeutic foods 

Estimates show that amid the pandemic, 9.3 million additional children will suffer from acute malnutrition, 2.6 million more children will be stunted, and another 168,000 children will die as a result of malnutrition, with an estimated US$29 billion in lost productivity globally by 2022. 

Atsushi Mimura, Director-General of the International Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Japan said: “We were very proud to host the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit to highlight how critical nutrition is for society to reach its full potential. Investing in nutrition is a key factor for development of future human capital that enables resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth of a country. We welcome the GFF’s Nutrition Road Map and expect its further catalytic role for nutrition financing, including from private sector. With our additional 50 million USD pledge to GFF as part of our broader commitment at the Summit, we would like to ensure that nutrition remains a top priority as we mitigate, control and then recover from this pandemic including through full integration in the Universal Health Coverage agenda.”   

Harjit Sajjan, Minister of International Development of Canada said: “Canada is committed to leading efforts to improve nutrition for the world’s poorest and most marginalized, especially women and girls. As COVID-19 pushes more people into a state of food insecurity, we are proud to be working alongside the GFF and all its partner countries to fund life-saving nutrition interventions for women, children and adolescents, and to help ensure these interventions are integrated into essential health services. A fully funded GFF can make an even greater difference-this is why Canada is co-hosting the GFF resource mobilization campaign and committing an additional $50 million Canadian dollars to the GFF.”  

Dr. Daniel Ngamije, Minister of Health for Rwanda said: “The GFF has provided crucial support to the Government of Rwanda to implement and sustain innovative strategies that are driving health and nutritional improvements across the country. These efforts will continue to support the socio-economic development agenda through building human capital and better health outcomes for the people of Rwanda.”

Juan Pablo Uribe, Global Director for Health Nutrition and Population at the World Bank and Director of the GFF said: “This crisis underlines the urgent need for investments that fully integrate impactful nutrition interventions into maternal and child health services. We are grateful to Japan and Canada for their generous contributions and leadership that is helping drive better nutrition and health outcomes particularly for the most vulnerable women, children and adolescents impacted by the pandemic.” 

GFF – A PROVEN MODEL TO DELIVER NUTRITION RESULTS  

Since 2015, the GFF has supported nutrition as an essential building block for the healthy development and well-being of women, adolescents and children. GFF’s mandate is to support countries as they chart equitable and increasingly self-sufficient pathways to universal health coverage (UHC) with a focus on women, children and adolescents. Fighting malnutrition is core to this agenda. The number of GFF partner countries reducing stunting among children under five years of age has increased from 6 to 8 and the number of countries reducing moderate to severe wasting among children under five years increased from 7 to 9.  

 GFF investments include supporting countries to: build their capacity at community and health facility levels; train health workers to improve child feeding practices; strengthen supply chains to integrate and deliver nutrition commodities, including micronutrients and ready-to-use therapeutic foods; and assist in the preparation, internal resource mobilization, data production and rollout of nutrition plans.   

Contact: Nansia Constantinou +1 202.458.5008

ABOUT THE GLOBAL FINANCING FACILITY 

The Global Financing Facility (GFF) is a multi-stakeholder partnership of the World Bank that supports country-led efforts to improve the health of women, children and adolescents. With the GFF, countries are making smarter, more prioritized, results-focused investments toward greater impact on the health, nutrition and well-being of women, children and adolescents; building capacity for more sustainable funding for this agenda; and exploring more innovative ways to work with the private sector.

Since the GFF was founded in 2015, partner countries have made significant progress to improve maternal and child health. Learn more here: Annual Report