Paris, France: At the evening event of the Nutrition for Growth Summit, held in Paris March 27 – 28, global philanthropies announced commitments intended to leverage more scaled and sustained financing for nutrition, which can exceed more than $2 billion in this nutrition year of action.

These investments come at a critical moment for global nutrition, and therefore for global health and development. Half of all child deaths are attributable to undernutrition and 1 in 3 people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet. This crisis is only being further exacerbated by climate change, with global food production and human health at ever greater risk.

There are cost-effective nutrition solutions ready to be scaled, and nutrition has a powerful multiplier effect across the Sustainable Development Goals, making it one of the best buys in global development with a return on investment of $23.

This year marks the deadline for the World Health Assembly’s global nutrition targets, and only five years from the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals. Still, the world lags far behind. With dwindling and uncertain development funding from high-income countries and a debt crisis limiting lower-income countries’ abilities to invest, there is tremendous need for philanthropic investments to be catalytic.

At the Nutrition for Growth Summit high-level event ‘Nourish the Goals’ co-hosted by Stronger Foundations for Nutrition and the OECD Network of Foundations Working for Development with the support of UNICEF and the Child Nutrition Fund, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Eleanor Crook Foundation, the following global philanthropic partners have announced a set of investments to bring highly impactful nutrition interventions to scale and strengthen them to become sustainable in the long-term:

• To improve maternal, child and newborn health and help prevent deaths from preventable causes, the Gates Foundation made a $750 million commitment over the next four years to scale up mothers’ and children’s access to essential nutrition through the health system, fortify commonly consumed foods with essential micronutrients and vitamins, and expand access to safe, nutritious, and affordable diets year-round.
• The Bezos family intends to donate up to US$500 million to UNICEF USA for the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund. This commitment serves as a dollar-for-dollar match-funding mechanism to encourage other private and public donors to meet the immediate and critical nutritional needs of children and women worldwide.
• The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) intends to commit at least $400m by the end of 2028 to scale-up high-impact evidence-based nutrition interventions across the lifecycle, including for adolescents, pregnant women, and children. This includes CIFF’s commitments towards initiatives like the Child Nutrition Fund, and End School Age Hunger Fund, and other efforts to catalyse the nutrition ecosystem through strong financing and policy mechanisms.
• Kirk Humanitarian: Kirk Humanitarian committed the first N4G pledge of US$125,000,000 to accelerate adoption of prenatal supplements, specifically UNIMMAP MMS, in high burden countries that have demonstrated readiness and political commitment for long-term, sustainable scale up. Of this, Kirk Humanitarian has already deployed $34,400,000 for in-kind product donations (equivalent to 16 million 180-count bottles of UNIMMAP MMS) to the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) in support of UNICEF’s 2024-2025 Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan. The remaining amount, $90,600,000 will be deployed between now and 2029 to support global efforts to adopt MMS. The total contributed amount will allow us to reach more than 60,000,000 pregnant women by 2030 with UNIMMAP MMS prenatal supplements.
• The Rockefeller Foundation commits $100 million to reach 100 million children in more than a dozen countries over the next five years. In collaboration with organizations and partner countries, The Rockefeller Foundation’s new initiative aims to help strengthen the resilience of food systems, improve the nutritional quality of school meals, mobilize finance, and help design procurement standards that incentivize investment in locally and regeneratively sourced foods.
• In 2024, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched a global effort to improve the health and development of children under 5 and their mothers. The initiative aims to improve access to nutrition, immunizations, and maternal and newborn care. As part of the effort, the Church provided $55.8 million to strengthen collaboration between eight leading organizations, including Hellen Keller International, CARE, Save the Children, The Hunger Project, Catholic Relief Services, iDE, Vitamin Angels, and MAP international. This collaboration will reach more than 15 million women and children in 12 countries during its first year. This level of support is indicative of the Church’s commitment to prioritize the needs of women and children in society with nutrition as a cornerstone to its efforts. The global effort also supports local congregations in more than 30 countries to screen children to identify those malnourished and then ensure appropriate treatment. Local congregations work with local healthcare providers to strengthen services available in the community.
• Since May 2024, GiveWell has directed over $50m to nutrition programs, including vitamin A supplementation, iron fortification, and community management of acute malnutrition, alongside research to guide future grants.
• Malnutrition is one of the greatest solvable tragedies of our time – and addressing it is the smartest investment we can make in the future of humanity. That’s why the Eleanor Crook Foundation is investing up to $50 million as part of a $1 billion roadmap to scale up access to multiple micronutrient supplements (MMS) for pregnant women alongside our philanthropic partners. MMS is a proven, low-cost solution that can prevent maternal anaemia, stillbirths, and low birthweight—yet too many women around the world are still denied access. With Stronger Foundations for Nutrition, we’re proud to stand alongside our partners to catalyse urgent, collective action. A nourished world is a stronger world—and the time to act is now
• The Aga Khan Development Network has committed $45 million over the next five years to help embed malnutrition prevention and treatment in healthcare systems; improve food availability and access to affordable and nutritious diets; and promote nutrition resilience among populations affected by climate change, conflict, and economic instability.
• Asia Venture Philanthropy Network, the largest network of social investors in Asia, is committed to bringing an additional USD $10 million in funding over the next two years to address malnutrition across Asia through the Nutrition Leaders Programme, which will see the participation of a new cohort of high net-worth individuals, faith-based investors, private foundations, and family offices.
• The END Fund, demonstrating its support as part of a diverse community of global multi-sector partners mobilized under the leadership of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, in partnership with the Government of Nigeria, the World Bank, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and IFAD, announced its endorsement of the importance of broad health and nutrition integration through the signing of a Nutrition Integration Compact.

Matt Freeman, Executive Director of Stronger Foundations for Nutritionsaid “This is a critical moment for impactful nutrition philanthropy. Strategic, catalytic investments can unlock innovation and mobilize a broader ecosystem of scaled and sustained financing.”

“When millions of women and children living in low- and middle-income countries can access the nutrition they need, women can survive childbirth, provide for their families, and raise healthy children who can live past their 5^th birthdays and develop to their full potential,” said Anita Zaidi, President of Gender Equality at the Gates Foundation.  “Our investments and work with partners to scale up and deliver low-cost, effective solutions to increase access to essential nutrition is one of the best investments we can make to build a healthier, more prosperous world.”

Anna Hakobyan, Chief Impact Officer and Executive Director for Nutrition at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation said: “Philanthropic collaboration is critical today, against the backdrop of rising uncertainties around financing for nutrition and other development priorities. It is heartening to see philanthropic partners coming forth to build alliances with key government, multilateral and private sector stakeholders to help catalyse sustainable growth. Investing in nutrition saves lives, builds resilient communities, and helps accelerate socio-economic growth for all.”

The most important thing we can do right now is feed the world’s most vulnerable: our children,” said Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “With The Rockefeller Foundation’s new five-year, $100 million commitment to more nourishing school meals for 100 million children, we also have an opportunity to help countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, along with the United States, transform their food systems into one that supports farmers, sustains our planet, and nourishes generations to come.

Spencer Kirk, philanthropist and founder of Kirk Humanitarian said “Momentum for MMS adoption is active and substantial – motivated by UNICEF’s Improving Maternal Nutrition Acceleration Plan, financially incentivized through the Child Nutrition Fund, and supported with 16 million bottles of UNIMMAP MMS donated by Kirk Humanitarian. Our $125 million commitment – the first pledge announced for N4G – will reach 17% of the estimated need in low- and middle-income countries. Now is the critical time when donors, national governments, and development and humanitarian organizations must take action to help place this critical intervention in the hands of women everywhere.”

Matt Reed, Chief Executive Officer for the Aga Khan Foundation (UK) said: “For decades, the Aga Khan Development Network has been committed to improving nutrition and food systems in Asia and Africa, with a holistic approach helping communities come together to combat malnutrition. From maternal and pre-natal health care through childhood and adolescence, our work also addresses the variety of issues and sectors required to create a healthy foundation for human development: water and hygiene, food and food systems, healthy behaviours. We are delighted to join with other foundations to catalyse government and private sector-action against malnutrition and hunger.”

Sam Mayer, Vice President of Global Strategic Partnerships at The END Fund said: “The health benefits of integrating nutrition programming with other interventions have long been known, yet investment strategies have remained too siloed. N4G and the Nutrition Integration Compact are advancing essential collaboration between government ministries, donors, and implementation partners to fuel the scale up required to meet critical and interconnected global health challenges.”

About Stronger Foundations for Nutrition

Stronger Foundations for Nutrition is the global philanthropic community for ending malnutrition. We believe a nourished world is a stronger world and are bringing together a diverse network of private donors in support of true transformational change. We do this by supporting philanthropies to direct funding towards the highest impact and most cost-effective nutrition interventions, encouraging coordinated action to raise malnutrition up the global agenda and producing tools and resources to make ending malnutrition understandable and actionable.

About OECD netFWD

The OECD Network of Foundation Working for Development (netFWD) has been convening leaders in philanthropy, OECD experts, and policymakers for over a decade to share ideas and incubate solutions to pressing development challenges. netFWD provides a privileged forum for dialogue and collaboration, contributes to new thinking on development and philanthropic strategies, and brings the voice of foundations into international development debates. netFWD members work on a wide range of sectors and on cross-sectoral issues, such as education, health, gender, and climate.

With members across the world, including foundations from Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE as well as partners in Latin America, Africa and Asia, netFWD is well-placed to facilitate dialogue between philanthropic actors and policymakers, and to raise the voice of philanthropic organisations working in the Global South and from the Global South.