We are celebrating an announcement made yesterday by Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen of $360.6 million for Nutrition International (NI), a high-impact investment that will help put an end to the malnutrition crisis!
This funding supports NI’s bold plan to improve millions of people’s lives. With an average return of $28 for every $1 invested, nutrition interventions offer some of the highest returns in global development. And with good nutrition, we know that children can better access education, and healthcare costs will decrease for both countries and individuals.
“In this challenging time, nutrition and focusing on nutrition is more important than ever before…we need to double down on nutrition because we know that the evidence strongly suggests that early interventions in nutrition have amazing positive outcomes in education and health and economic growth and prosperity and participation in society down the road. So these investments are crucial.”
Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen
Yesterday’s announcement is crucial to delivering Vitamin A to children and providing essential nutrition resources to marginalized communities in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This support will help reduce stunting (a child being too short for their age), in turn preventing cognitive delays, improving educational outcomes, and creating pathways to better economic opportunities.
This funding will enable NI to continue its key role in preventing anemia – one of the leading causes of maternal and newborn mortality while also helping reduce wasting (a child being too thin for their height), as children born to anemic mothers are at higher risk of suffering from severe malnutrition.
We applaud Canada's investment as a solid down payment to the goal of securing $750 million over five years toward ending the malnutrition crisis at the Nutrition For Growth Summit in March. For months, we’ve been advocating with our partners to the government while our volunteers have been writing letters to the editor, engaging their Members of Parliament, and raising awareness in their networks.
This Canadian funding is needed now more than ever with the flow of aid largely blocked by the US. Hundreds of millions of children are affected by malnutrition – many of whom die from it – and it costs the global economy hundreds of BILLIONS. The future of nutrition programs is now in jeopardy and Canada needs to be a global leader and step up to #FeedOurFuture. Let's show the world how to step up and support a thriving future for all!
For more on the impacts of the malnutrition funding and the importance of Canada’ s nutrition investments, read our blog post.
